The Flower And The Wolverine
by wibblywobblywesteros
Summary: Agent Daisy Johnson is getting a new partner, a older former agent. She is unsure if trusts her new partner or if she even likes him.
1. Chapter 1

Daisy Johnson was more than a little nervous about meeting her new partner. She had been working with Mack for a long time now. She trusted him. He trusted her. It was a good working relationship and good friendship. But Mack had been badly injured on their last mission. He was going to be okay eventually, but he had four months of physical therapy in store for him before he would be able to return to work. In the meantime, Daisy needed a partner and Coulson told her he had found one for her. Coulson said he was an older agent with a lot of experience. He had worked for SHIELD back before Coulson joined them and had been in retirement until now. Phil had somehow convinced him to return to SHIELD. The former agent had only agreed to return temporarily until Mack was recovered but Daisy could tell that Phil was hoping he would be convinced to return for good. Whoever this older guy was, Daisy wasn't sure how she felt about working with him. How was he going to handle combat if he was older than Coulson? She pictured a silver haired man with a white moustache and shuddered.

"Daisy?" Phil stepped into the room where she had been waiting for the last ten minutes. "He's here. This is Agent Logan." The man who followed Phil into the room didn't look nearly old as she'd expected. He was maybe in his late forties, so he was still old compared to herself but not at all what she'd anticipated. He wore jeans, a button up shirt, a brown and black leather jacket and boots. His hair was a little crazy sticking up in odd places but he looked fairly fit so maybe she wouldn't have to do all the fighting after all.

"Logan, this is Agent Johnson," Phil continued.

"You can call me Daisy," she said, stepping closer to shake his hand.

"Logan," he grunted, gripping her hand firmly.

"Unfortunately that's going to have to be the limit of the team building. Rest assured, you're both very good agents, but you'll have to get to know each other on the field." Phil smiled at them as they ended their handshake. "I have an urgent mission for you. You are to be on a plane headed for Russia in one hour. Here are your instructions along with passports and plane tickets." He handed each of them a manila folder. "Good luck," he said and he walked out of the room.

Daisy glanced at the contents of the folder. She looked up to see Logan stuffing his into his back pocket. "So...um...you used to work for SHIELD?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah," Logan said and headed for the door apparently not interested in conversation. "Need a lift to the airport?"

"Sure, why not?" she said and followed him out. "Let me just grab some stuff from my locker and I'll be right there."

"Five minutes kid, I'm only waiting five minutes," Logan called back as he headed down the hall towards the door.

"Kid?" Daisy said to herself as she went quickly to her locker to grab her backpack. Who was this guy anyway? He may be older than she was, but Daisy was no kid. Daisy took her backpack off the hook in her locker, threw in a few extra items and hurried out the door.

It turned out Logan's ride was a vintage motorcycle. "You can't be serious," she said, stopping short of climbing on behind him.

"What's the matter, You don't like motorcycles?" he asked.

"I like motorcycles just fine," Daisy said, strapping on her backpack. "It's you I'm not so sure about."

"Just get on kid. I don't bite," he said.

"My name is Daisy, not kid," she said as she climbed onto the bike behind him.

"Sure, I'll try to remember that," he said, starting up the motorcycle. "Hang on to something."

The motorcycle started moving and Daisy scrambled for a place to hang on. She knew there should be handles somewhere but there was no time to find them. She had little choice but to grab onto Agent Logan and try to keep from falling off.

Once he was parked near the airport, Logan took his leather bag from the bike and walked inside with Daisy. It seemed like they would be able to board smoothly until Logan spotted the metal detector.

"I've got a plate in my head," he said to Daisy. He asked the security guard to do a patdown instead. The guard took his wand, waved it over Logan, and it wouldn't stop beeping. He looked down at it, shook his head at the obviously defective equipment and tossed it aside for an old fashioned examination.

"Hey, watch where you're putting those hands, bub," Logan chided the guard.

Daisy watched Logan's face, as he obviously didn't enjoy the exam, and after said "You know, they can do an x-ray instead?"

"Yeah, I don't get along with x-rays well either." She didn't offer any more advice until they had gotten onto the plane.

After they'd settled in and taken off, Daisy opened the folder that Coulson had given her to see more details about what the mission was. "Shit," She mumbled as she read the briefing.

"That bad, is it?" Logan asked.

"Apparently we have to neutralize some sort of abominable snow monster in Siberia." Daisy said. "Locals are reporting it as fifteen feet tall, super strong, and they say it eats people."

"Doesn't sound too bad." Logan said with a shrug.

"Okay, so once we locate this thing, and we find out it really is a threat, how would you suggest we neutralize it?" Daisy asked him. She knew what she would do. She would use her powers to knock it to the ground but she needed to know what he would do. She knew almost nothing about him except that he didn't like to talk much and he wasn't afraid of motorcycle accidents.

"Hit it 'til it's down," he said. "What would you do?"

"Hit it 'til it's down," Daisy agreed though she wasn't sure how much damage he could actually do to a superhuman fifteen foot tall snow monster.

"Really?" He asked, probably having the same doubts about her that she had about him. "How hard can you hit?"

"Hard enough," Daisy said, unsure if she wanted to tell him about her powers just yet. Too many people still hated inhumans and older people were often less accepting. Maybe she'd just give them a little longer to work together before mentioning it. "You must be able to hit pretty hard yourself?"

"Well, it's more like stabbing," he explained but didn't elaborate.

"So you were carrying knives? That's why security stopped you?" Daisy made a guess.

"I always carry knives," he said.

"And you don't have metal in your skull?"

"I got that too." He said leaning back in his seat as if he planned to sleep for the flight. She was starting to suspect that the metal detecting wand wasn't broken.

Fine. If he wanted to sleep instead of get to know his new partner a little bit or even bother to read the mission briefing for himself she could work with that. Daisy popped in some earbuds, turned on her music player and set to work ignoring him for the rest of the flight.


	2. Chapter 2

The moment that they got off the plane in the Siberian city of Omsk, Daisy tore her inhibitor gloves off. Her arms were bruised and hurting a great deal. She understood why Coulson had ordered she wear them on the plane. The control gauntlets couldn't be worn out in the open. They were metal, looked like a weapon, would make all the people on the plane uncomfortable, and would be a problem at airport security. Only the inhibitor gloves would ensure a safe flight for everyone. Daisy understood, but she still didn't like it, especially not when it resulted in this much pain.

"You get in a fight yesterday?" Logan asked her, taking note of the bruises on her arms.

"Nope," she said tersely. Why the sudden interest in her now? He couldn't be bothered to talk to her for the whole twelve hour flight. She stopped by a bench at the airport and stuffed the inhibitor gloves into her backpack. The metal gauntlets were in the backpack. She reached for one to put it on and then thought better of it. The gauntlets could wait. The moment she put them on he would start to suspect she wasn't normal. He already didn't even like her. No sense in making it worse. Daisy slung her backpack over her shoulder and kept walking.

"So, where are we headed?" Logan asked her.

"If you had bothered to read the mission briefing some time in the last twelve hours you'd already know," Daisy said though she was careful to hide some of her annoyance from her tone.

"No need. I figured you'd tell me what it says."

"And what if I don't? What if we get all the way here and I decide to go rogue? How would you even know if you haven't read the instructions?" Daisy asked him.

"I'd know," he said simply.

"How?" she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Because there'd be nobody here yapping at me to read the instructions anymore."

Daisy sighed, realizing she wasn't going to convince him to care about the mission parameters at all. "We have to get some warmer clothes and then meet a contact who will take us to the area of the last sighting."

Daisy led the way to a nearby shop in the terminal where she purchased a jacket with a fur hood, mittens, and a scarf. She glanced over at Logan saw that he didn't seem to have bought anything. He was already wearing a jacket though and his hair was pretty thick so maybe he figured he didn't need anything.

"Are you at least gonna get some gloves?" Daisy asked him as she pulled on the heavy coat she had just purchased.

He looked down at his hands. "I don't see the point."

"Okay then…" Daisy said, not entirely convinced that gloves were pointless in this climate. "A man by the name of Petre Grolov is expecting us a mile away in two hours. I'm not sure what we do in the meantime."

"We eat," Logan said and he turned away from her and headed towards one of the restaurants.

Daisy wasn't hungry. She had eaten on the plane but she followed him anyway. Logan, it seemed, was ravenous. The man ate a lot. He was too busy eating to make conversation so Daisy turned on her cell phone to see if she had missed any important messages during the flight. There was nothing. Not so much as a text from Mack updating her about his therapy. He'd promised he'd send one. It wasn't there. Daisy checked three times.

"You gonna do that a lot, kid?" Logan asked.

"Do what?" she tried not to be irritated that he was calling her kid again.

"You gonna keep your face glued to that screen?" He explained, "It will keep you from being focused."

So he was one of those old guys who hated young people and their cell phones. He probably stood on his porch at home every morning yelling at kids to get off his lawn with their loud music too. "I'll manage somehow,"

"I'm just saying, it will be easier for me to keep you out of trouble if you aren't distracted."

"I can handle whatever trouble we find," Daisy nearly shouted but managed to tone down her anger.

"Then how did you get the bruises? Looks to me like trouble handled you."

Daisy grabbed her backpack from the seat next to her and walked away from him without answering him. "Meet me in an hour. If you want to know the place you'll have to open that folder you're so afraid of." she said as she walked away.

Daisy went to one of the restrooms before leaving the terminal. She put on her gauntlets, mittens and jacket before going outside. The gauntlets were fairly well hidden under all the layers which was exactly how she preferred it. Once outside, she headed for the place where they were to meet Petre just to scope out the place ahead of time. Logan caught up to her before she had gone two blocks.

"You really shouldn't run off like that," he said as he came up alongside her, hands in his coat pockets.

"Why, afraid you'll get lost?"

"Look kid, it's been a long time since I worked for SHIELD and even back then I never cared much for following instructions to the letter. I was hired for a reason and that's cause I was the best at what I did and what I did wasn't very nice. So no, I'm not the one who should be worried about getting lost."

Daisy stopped walking and turned to him ready to say exactly what she thought of that.

"Go ahead," he said before she could say anything.

"Go ahead what?" she asked, barely biting back her anger.

"Tell me I'm wrong and that you don't need my help. Once it's out of your system maybe we can get on with this mission."

"I do need help," Daisy said quite honestly though she was still furious, "I need Mack's help, not yours." She turned and kept walking without waiting for him to reply.


	3. Chapter 3

Petre Grolov was waiting for them at a table in the coffee shop wearing a red cap just as promised. He was a younger man closer to Daisy's age than to Logan's and he smiled as he saw them coming and got to his feet to shake their hands.

"Quake? SHIELD sent Quake?" Petre shook Daisy's hand first, clearly impressed to meet her. "I knew they'd be sending someone but...it's good to meet you."

"Hi...um...it's Agent Johnson, please," Daisy said, a little uncomfortable with her recent fame. "This is Agent Logan."

Logan shook his hand and they both took seats at the table. "So what can you tell us about this thing we're looking for?" Logan said. Daisy was a little stunned that he was finally taking an interest in the mission.

"Well it's about three hours drive from here where they last saw it. Some people are calling it a Yeti. Some people are saying it's an alien or even a machine. The only thing we know for sure is that nine houses in one village had their roofs torn off and twelve people have gone missing. I have pictures of blood in the snow and pictures of what people are calling footprints." Petre put his photos on the table.

The photos depicted multiple houses with roofs that did indeed look like they had been torn off. There were trucks and vehicles overturned and blood in the snow.

"How do you know this wasn't just a tornado?" Daisy asked.

"The people that were there all claim they saw something. It was white and large and growling." Petre explained. "That, and the Hydrometerological Centre said there were no abnormal weather conditions in the area at that time. Nothing but clear skies."

"Can you tell us anything else about it?" Logan asked.

"I have the rest of these pictures. A list of names of people who were there." Petre said, ready to hand them his information.

"I guess we'd better get started then," Logan got up for his chair and made for the door.

Daisy grabbed the papers off the table and started after him with an apologetic look to Petre for her partner's rudeness.

"I could give you a ride. I could help." Petre offered.

"No thanks, kid." Logan said. "We got this under control."

"Why didn't you let him give us a ride?" Daisy said, catching up to Logan at the sidewalk outside. "He might have been useful."

"He wouldn't have been useful. He would have been too busy trying to flirt with Quake." Logan said pointedly.

If he was looking for clues as to why Petre had been calling her Quake, Daisy wasn't going to give any.

"Who cares? It wouldn't be the first time I've had to work a mission around some annoying guy trying to flirt with me." Daisy argued. "So what are we gonna do about a ride now?"

"Buy one."

"That's gonna be a little complicated. I don't really speak Russian. Do you?" She asked, he really didn't look like the type to spend much time studying foreign languages.

"I'll manage somehow," he said, giving her earlier words back to her.

It turned out that Logan did speak Russian and not just well enough to order food at the airport. He spoke well enough to rent a truck for them, buy a map, and apparently share a joke with the salesperson. Daisy tossed her backpack in the back of the truck alongside his leather bag and climbed into the passenger seat of the cab.

"You're not gonna insist on driving?" Logan climbed in after she did.

"No I…" She looked down at her arms. She wanted to give them a little more time to heal. Even the strain of driving would be a little much right then, "Go ahead and drive."

Logan didn't seem to have any more to say during the drive to the village than he had on the plane. Daisy hadn't really slept on the plane so she soon fell asleep in the truck. She awoke up as they were pulling into a parking space outside of a store in what seemed to be a small town. A glance at the clock on the truck dashboard told her that they'd been traveling for nearly three hours. This should be their stop.

"We there?" She asked him.

"We are," Logan said.

Daisy reached for the door handle.

"Now hold up," Logan spoke before she could open the door. "Before either of us go anywhere, I'm gonna need you to tell me what your big secret is."

"My what?"

"Who is Quake? What's with the bruises on your arms? And what exactly are you hiding under the sleeves of that jacket?"

Daisy stared at him a moment. "Are you gonna explain to me what your deal is with metal detectors?" She wasn't gonna tell him anything as long as he was still keeping his own secrets.

"I was going to tell you eventually. Just didn't want to scare you."

"Scare me?" What could he possibly be hiding that could be more scary than being an inhuman? She tore off her mittens, leaned forward and tore off her jacket. Then she threw off the metal gauntlets to the floor of the truck. "You know why I have these bruises? Because those gloves that I was wearing were inhibitors keeping me from causing a shock wave that could have brought down the plane. Those inhibitors fracture my bones if I wear them too long but I don't have a choice. I'm an inhuman."

Logan only shrugged at that. He didn't seem horrified like she expected he would be. "What do those things do?" He nodded towards her gauntlets on the floor.

"They help me direct the earthquakes," She said. "I know I should have told you before but I didn't know how you felt about inhumans."

Logan held up a hand and made a fist. Three metal claws came out from his knuckles. "How do you feel about mutants?"

"I...um...mutants are just fine with me," Daisy watched in awe as his claws retracted and the skin on his knuckles healed before her eyes.

"Good. Now that our introductions are good and proper, maybe we won't have any more problems." Logan got out of the truck and Daisy opened her door and followed him into the village.


	4. Chapter 4

"So that's the third person who told us it was a white robot with glowing eyes," Daisy said as she and Logan left another residence in the small town. They had been interviewing people for the last couple of hours. Well, Logan had been interviewing and mostly keeping her caught up with what was being said. "That doesn't include the four families that said it had fur, or the old guy who said it was full of green blood. Now I know eyewitness accounts don't always match up, but what the hell could be going on here?"

"Don't know. I think it's time to stop talking and start looking," he said.

"Okay. But what are we even looking for? A robot? Most people are saying robot."

"It's not a robot. At least it's not just a robot." Logan sounded pretty sure of himself.

"Then what is it?" she asked.

"Whatever it is, it's both mechanical and organic," Logan was heading away from the houses and out towards the forest as they walked.

"Where are you going?" Daisy called after him. The footprints that it had left were in another direction entirely. If he was looking for the thing, he was going the wrong way.

"To find our Yeti," he said, not looking back.

Once again Daisy ran to catch up with him. "This isn't the direction the witnesses said it went. This isn't even where the tracks are headed."

"This is the way he went. I can smell it."

"You can smell it?" What sort of a mutant was he? Daisy knew mutants had all sorts of powers and abilities just like inhumans but this was a new one. He didn't look like he was inclined to answer though. He was pretty focused on following the trail in the air. He was also walking at pretty quick pace. Daisy was carrying her backpack with clothes, gauntlets, laptop, and everything else she usually traveled with. She wasn't as tall as Logan and after an hour with the load she carried, Daisy was having a little trouble keeping up. She was nowhere near exhausted or worn out, just starting to slow her pace a little. She was actually a little thankful when he suddenly stopped, until she understood why he had stopped.

"What is that noise?" Daisy asked. It sounded like a mix between growling and an engine running.

"You can hear that?" Logan actually sounded a little surprised in his stoic sort of way.

"Since the terrigenesis I can hear lots of stuff. What is that?"

"Only one way to find out," Logan disappeared over a steep embankment in the direction of the sound.

Daisy hurried to catch up with him and took a look at the steep hill they were heading down. She should have worn better boots. This wasn't just any hill. It was more like a mountain. There were a lot of trees near the top though so she held onto an overhanging branch as she made her way down. It seemed like that strategy was going to work out. Then the branch snapped. Before she knew it she was sliding down the side of the mountain. She slid right past Logan and down another thirty feet before she could even realize what was happening. She was heading straight for a massive tree. Her first instinct was to use her powers and stop herself. It was only a small quake directed at the tree in her path but it was enough to slow her dive down the mountainside. She sat up at the base of the tree and saw that Logan was sliding towards her feet first. Those metal claws of his were out on both hands and he dug into the bark of the tree with one hand to slow his own descent.

"You okay, kid?" he asked, coming to a stop next to her. Daisy realized that he had actually jumped downhill to chase after her when she went past him.

"Yeah, I'm good," she said, as he stood and reached out a hand to help her to her feet. Then she felt it, more vibrations.

"What?" Logan asked, seeing on her face that something was wrong.

"Avalanche," Daisy knew it was coming and was big. Before she could think about running, she was pinned against the trunk of the tree that had already nearly killed her, pinned not by snow but by Logan. Then the snow hit them. Daisy expected to be crushed and suffocate at any moment. She had an instant of overwhelming panic before realizing that she wasn't being crushed at all and she actually could still breathe. Somehow, Logan was holding back the snow from crushing her. She was small enough that he had shielded her with his body but she had no idea how he was holding back the weight of so much snow. It had to be traveling more than a hundred miles an hour. They should both be dead. The ancient massive pine tree behind her groaned from all the stress but it didn't break. The snow was slowing down a little. She knew it was slowing because the vibrations were less intense. Logan made a sound like a growl from the strain of holding back the snow.

She struggled briefly to get one of her hands free from where it was pinned between them. "If I can get my hand free I can quake the snow away," Daisy told him. There was always a risk of starting another avalanche but what choice did they have.

"Do it," Logan said, his voice strained. Daisy couldn't get her hand free. Logan couldn't give her any more space than he's already given her. "Quake through me." He said.

"I could kill you," Daisy argued.

"You won't kill me. Do it!"

Without her gauntlets, Daisy's blast wasn't as well controlled but she did create a shield wall around Logan to hold back the snow. He roared with pain but in spite of the pain she was causing him she knew she was helping him hold back the snow. In a short time, a time that seemed far longer than it actually was Daisy felt the avalanche come to an end. Daisy packed a cocoon of snow around them and redirected her quake upwords. They saw a glimmer of sunlight and started crawling out to the top of the snow above them.

Logan went out first and he pulled Daisy out onto the soft snow beside him. "You okay kid?" He asked her for the second time. He looked like he was perfectly fine somehow.

"I think so," Daisy was pretty sure she was physically fine. Her hands were shaking though and if she wasn't careful she might start crying at any moment. "I don't know how you did that but...thank you."

He only nodded in acknowledgement. "The bad news is, I don't smell our Yeti anymore."

"Maybe it got buried."

"We should go back to the village and start looking again in the morning." Logan suggested.

Daisy readily agreed. A real bed would do her a lot of good right about then.


	5. Chapter 5

In spite of the comfort of a fairly decent bed in the village motel, Daisy found it fairly difficult to fall asleep. Between the pain in her arms, the loss of her backpack somewhere in that avalanche, and her confusion about this new partner of hers, sleep just wasn't working out so well.

The pain in her arms she could deal with. It was distracting. And yes it definitely hurt but it was manageable at the moment.

The loss of her backpack she could live with too. Everything in there could be replaced. She could buy new clothes. She kept a backup of her hard drive at home, Coulson could mail her a new passport to get her home, and Jemma could make new gauntlets. She could even work without the gauntlets for a while if she needed to. Her powers were less accurate that way but she could still do some damage to a target if she stayed focused. There would be pain of course but as long as she could keep her powers under control when she wasn't supposed to be using them it might be okay. That would be a challenge but maybe it could work out.

It was starting to look like Coulson had been right about Agent Logan. Of course Coulson had been right. He usually was. That didn't mean she had to like it. That didn't even mean she had to like Logan's methods or even to like him but she did have to admit to herself that he did seem to be getting the job done in his own way. Plus the fact that he hadn't hesitated to help her when she needed it. So what was really keeping her awake was the fact that this was the second time she had quaked a partner. Sure, she barely knew this partner, there really hadn't been a better way to get out of the snow, and it clearly hadn't hospitalized him like it did Mack, but she had still hurt him and that bothered her more than she cared to admit.

Daisy tossed and turned for a long while. She kept thinking about the fact that the avalanche had been her fault. She kept thinking about Mack's hospital records from when she quaked him. There had been so many shattered bones...She knew Logan must have some sort of healing mutation, but he clearly wasn't immune to pain. Daisy didn't like hurting people. She didn't like thinking about that roaring scream he had made when she pushed back the snow. Maybe she was just exhausted. Maybe it was just the strain of nearly getting herself killed earlier that day but Daisy started to cry. She sucked in a breath and brushed away her unwanted tears. She couldn't cry here, not in this double room with her new partner just six feet away. It was an effort to keep from crying but she managed it. Then the room started to vibrate.

"Are you doing that kid?" Logan spoke up in the darkness.

"Sorry, sometimes I can't control it." Daisy replied.

"Like when you're upset the way you have been the past few hours?" He asked.

"Yeah," Daisy admitted as the vibrations in the room increased. Great. He knew she'd been awake all this time.

"You gonna tell me what's keeping you awake or you plan on bringing down the whole building?"

Daisy sat up and swung her to floor so she sat facing his bed. She was gonna have to tell him. It wasn't gonna go away unless she did. "I'm sorry I quaked you. I know you told me to do it and there wasn't any other way out of that snow but I'm sorry I had to hurt you."

Logan sat up in his bed and turned to face her, feet on the floor. "Daisy, I'm not holding any grudges about it. I've healed from a lot worse from people who wanted me dead."

"Just because you can heal doesn't make it okay for people to hurt you," Daisy protested, actually starting to cry a little.

Logan was silent a moment before answering. "Maybe not. I'm fine though. You need to stop beating yourself up about it."

"I know," Daisy agreed brushing away her tears in anger. The vibrations in the room started to decrease.

"Coulson was right about you," Logan said as he lay back down on the bed.

"Why? What did he say about me?"

"Don't worry, it was good things." Logan said, turning onto his side facing away from her to sleep. "All good things."


	6. Chapter 6

Daisy woke up in the morning in an immense amount of pain. Her arms hadn't even had time to heal from the inhibitor gloves before she'd used her powers without gauntlets the previous day. Now it was more than just her arms. Every bone in her body hurt like hell. It was going to be a difficult day ahead. They would need to go back out into the woods and locate their target. All that walking with this much pain was going to be difficult. Still, she'd had worse. She'd just have to keep her mouth shut and endure it.

Daisy saw movement across the room and realized that Logan was sitting in a chair pulling on his boots. Apparently it was time to get up. Daisy pushed aside the covers and went to the bathroom to attempt to clean herself up in spite of not having a change of clothes. Once in the bathroom Daisy found that she had a lot of new bruises. Her arms had deeper bruises than before, her hands now too, and shoulders. At least her face wasn't affected yet though she knew from experience that if she kept this up she would soon have black eyes too. It didn't matter. She'd just handle it somehow like she did before.

Logan was rummaging through the contents of his leather bag at the end of his bed when Daisy exited the bathroom. He glanced up at her and stopped short.

"You okay?" he asked.

For a moment Daisy thought about telling him she was fine. It would be easier to just try to pretend there was nothing wrong with her than to have him watching her more closely because she was injured. The pain was probably going to slow her down though and if he was forced to work with her he probably deserved to know about that. "I think I have some fractured bones."

"Which bones?" he looked a little concerned,

"Um, probably a lot of them in my hands and arms and shoulders. That's what happens when I quake without the gauntlets." Daisy explained. "It's fine though. I've had worse."

"Then maybe you'd best not do that anymore until you get some of those gauntlets again," Logan told her.

"Well, I will if I have to," Daisy said without thinking. She had no intention of just standing back and letting him carry on the mission and do all the fighting without her. That wasn't how she worked.

"You won't have to." Logan said and Daisy knew he wasn't just being optimistic about the rest of the mission going smoothly, he was saying he would keep her out of trouble.

"I might have to. You don't know what's gonna happen."

Logan was silent a moment as he chose his words carefully. "I don't, but maybe we can take down this thing without needing your powers."

"Maybe." Daisy sighed and decided to try and let it go. "We're gonna need to get a charger for this today," she took her cell phone from her pocket. The charger she had brought had been in her backpack. "Coulson expects us to check in at noon."

"Let's do that now," he said heading for the door. "And get some food while we're at it."

Daisy threw on her jacket and mittens and followed him out to the village. They found cell phone charger at a gas station as well as some junk food that would serve as breakfast. Daisy also grabbed a package of socks and paid for everything with the SHIELD issued credit card that had been zipped securely in her jacket pocket and had therefore survived the avalanche. They were walking back to the motel to charge the phone and eat when Logan stopped in front of one of the houses they had visited the previous day. "We got one more thing to buy," he said as he went towards the front door.

They stood on the steps as Logan spoke with a older male resident that they knew as Ivan. Daisy knew enough Russian to recognize a few numbers being said. They were apparently discussing a price. Whatever he was buying, Daisy wondered how he was going to pay for it. Then Logan took out cash from his wallet, hundreds of dollars in American cash and paid Ivan. In return for his cash Ivan gave him what looked like a briefcase. Logan thanked him and they headed back to the motel.

"What's in the case?" Daisy asked as they walked.

"Something you'll need," he said, not giving many details as usual.

"That was a lot of money and if you didn't get a receipt, Coulson's not gonna authorize paying you back." Daisy pointed out, still having no idea what he was up to.

"Doesn't matter. It was worth it."

"You know you're not very good at explanations," Daisy said, a little frustrated.

"I've heard that before." Logan paused, deep in thought, then added, "You remind me of a girl I used to know. She was a bit of a rogue too, you could say."

Back in the motel, the cell phone charged and they ate breakfast. They actually started having a normal conversation and Daisy learned that Logan was Canadian and had spent some time working as a teacher. She couldn't picture him teaching though. Then he explained that he taught History and Combat and it made a little more sense. She mentioned she had grown up in foster homes and had been a hacker before Coulson brought her to SHIELD. Plans were made to spent the morning checking out the footprints left by their target.

"Ready to go?" Logan asked.

Daisy stuffed the last of her pastry into her mouth, pulled on her coat and nodded.

"Better take this too," Logan opened the case he'd left at the end of the bed and handed her a pistol along with several clips of ammunition.

"Oh. Thanks." Daisy found she was little overwhelmed at this small act of kindness. He was giving her a means to defend herself without pain. She knew it wasn't just to be nice, it was to help them both get through the mission. "How did you know Ivan had a gun or would even sell?" she asked as they went out the door.

"He told me yesterday he was ex-military and he lost a grandson to that creature we're hunting. He would have done anything to help." Logan explained. "He probably would have given us a dozen guns if asked, but it wasn't right not to pay him."

"Thanks for this," Daisy said a second time. "I'll pay you back since I don't think this will be covered by our SHIELD expense account."

"No need to pay me back. The footprints should be this way," Logan said and he set off in the direction they had been told to look.


	7. Chapter 7

"These don't really look like footprints," Daisy said, looking down at the three foot roundish indentations in the snow in front of them.

"They really don't," Logan agreed. "But the trail is such a mess from all the people who tried to follow it and get their families back that there's no telling what kind of prints they were in the first place anyway."

"Maybe you were right yesterday. Maybe it's not worth following this trail. It's been a week since the creature went this way…unless this leads to some sort of nest or lair."

"Which would make it worth a try," Logan said.

Daisy found that walking that day caused as much pain as she expected it would. It helped that Logan was talking to her a little now. He wasn't exactly brimming with words or information but they did converse enough to distract her from the pain in her bones. After three hours, the trail suddenly ended."

"It shouldn't end like this," Logan said, stopping at the clear space of snow ahead of them. "Not unless…"

"It can fly," Daisy finished for him.

"Kinda looks that way," Logan agreed.

Before they could even consider the next course of action Daisy's cell phone beeped. "How do I have signal all the way out here?" she said as she pulled it out and checked the message. She had several texts that had all shown up just then. Onw was from Mack telling her the therapy was going well and he missed her. Daisy found herself smiling.

"Good news?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, Mack is okay. He was supposed to update me yesterday but my battery was dead most of the day so I guess he couldn't." Daisy said and then she realized something.

"What?" he asked, seeing the look on her face.

"Before my battery died, I had reception in the village yesterday. An hour ago I checked and I had none," she started to explain.

"So what does that mean except that you can't text people in the woods?"

"We're south of the village right now, right? I saw on the map that there were no other towns or villages for miles south of here. When you drove us in was there anything in the five or ten miles before this village? Any population?" she asked.

"No, there were hardly any houses or signs of people for twenty miles. Why?"

"Cell towers in this terrain are only going to reach a few miles. The village has a tower. We reached the end of its range an hour ago. Someone a few miles South of here has another cell tower with better reception than that whole village can get. Doesn't that seem odd to you?"

"Maybe. Maybe that's the sort of place a robot might come from," he admitted a little skeptically.

"Except you said it was organic too," Daisy said, understanding his skepticism. "I suppose it could be both. It could be a...cyborg beast…"

"I guess so. If it is a cyborg beast I suppose its makers will want to have WiFi and all that stuff. You have any ideas where we look for that tower?"

Daisy smiled. "I can do better than that. I can pinpoint the exact spot."

It wasn't as easy to do this sort of work over a cell phone as it would have been with her laptop but Daisy had chosen her particular phone for this exact reason, just in case she should ever be without a computer. In just a few minutes she had coordinates.

They walked for an hour towards their new destination before stopping to eat some protein bars and make their check in with Coulson. The only thing he expected was a text message with the code word "Fedora" if everything was still a go. However, Coulson might very well reply as if it were a friendly chat and update them on office gossip as he sometimes did. Daisy sent the word Fedora and just seconds later Phil replied with a short text. "Call me ASAP."

"He wants us to call him," Daisy said, putting her phone on speaker and hitting the call button.

"There's been a development Daisy," Phil said when he answered the call. "There's no easy way to tell you this. Calvin Zabo knows about Tahiti somehow. He remembers everything and he is on a plane headed for Siberia right now. It's possible he might be looking for you."

"What?" Daisy said stunned. "How? How does he know? Was there a breach?"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Coulson said. "All we do know is that there was an incident in the city two days ago. We sent some agents to check it out and they recorded footage one of his long melodramatic speeches about the evils of SHIELD and how we erased his memory and stole his daughter. He is using the Hyde formula."

"Did those agents make it out alive?" Daisy asked, the ground around them was beginning to shake as if they were standing next to an unbalanced washing machine.

"I'm only telling you this Daisy as a warning so he won't take you by surprise," Coulson said, ignoring her question. "If you would prefer an extraction rather than continue the mission then I'm giving you that option as well."

"I don't want an extraction," Daisy said, not waiting to hear what Logan thought of the idea. "How many people did my father kill this time?"

"Daisy, if you're going to stay in the field, I need you focused on the mission," Coulson said. "Can you handle that?"

"I can, when you tell me how many," She said firmly.

Phil sighed audibly. "Five, he killed three the night of the incident and two agents. Is Agent Logan there?"

"I'm here Phil," Logan spoke up.

"If Calvin Zabo catches up with you, he needs to be arrested, you are authorized to take more drastic measures if necessary. There is a formula Zabo takes that gives him increased strength and gives him bouts of rage. He won't be easy to arrest. I'm afraid another difficult part of that is going to be helping Daisy to keep her head clear." Coulson said.

"I'll be fine," Daisy said even as the vibrations around them increased.

"Daisy if you need to come in from the field on this one, no one is going to think any less of you," Phil said.

"I don't. I'm fine," She insisted.

"If that changes, if you can't handle the mission, you are under orders to come in, is that understood?" Coulson said.

"Understood," Daisy said.

"Best of luck to you then," Phil said and ended the call.

As soon as the call ended the vibrations around them increased into an actual quake.

"Hey," Logan said, putting a hand on Daisy's shoulder. She didn't really respond. He took her other shoulder firmly and shook her a little. "Hey! You've got to stop that!"

Daisy sucked in a breath and somehow managed to end the quake. There were tears on her face and she was reeling with emotion but she was determined she wouldn't let it control her. "Thanks," she said as the vibrations ended.

"Are you really gonna be able to do this?" Logan asked her. "You never asked Coulson to send new gauntlets and now you've got more stuff to deal with. If you want to sit this one out…?"

"No. No, I can do this. I have to do this."

"Okay. Let's go find that cell tower then."


	8. Chapter 8

"I take it you ended up in foster care because your father was a criminal?" Logan asked as they resumed their search for the tower.

"Something like that," Daisy said. Maybe he had the right idea. Maybe talking about her messed up history would be more therapeutic than trying to pretend nothing was wrong. "My mom was an inhuman. When I was a baby HYDRA came for her pretending to be SHIELD. They took her away and my father left me with a neighbor and went after her. By the time he caught up to her, HYDRA had taken her organs and her blood and left her in a ditch. She could heal though, that was her power. She did it by killing people. My father helped her slaughter the entire village where they'd left me so that she could live. SHIELD came to investigate what happened there and they took me with them. I ended up in foster care and my father made it his life's mission to destroy SHIELD and find me again. My mother didn't trust humans anymore after that so he had to make himself more than human, both to win her over and to save me. The formula he made...if he ever was sane, he isn't anymore...but he did kill my mother to save my life in the end so…" Daisy stopped talking as she could feel the vibrations in her hands and she knew she needed to hold them back.

"Did you know all this when you were a kid?" Logan asked, keeping her talking.

"Most of it, no. All I knew was that there was something wrong with me since none of the foster homes ever wanted me to stay for long. I was never a good fit." Daisy said bitterly. "I joined a hacker group in my teens to try to learn more about SHIELD and what might have happened to my parents. I didn't learn much from them either. So I decided the only way I was gonna learn anything was to infiltrate SHIELD."

"You joined SHIELD as a spy?"

Daisy nodded, "I did but all that changed when Coulson trusted me. No one ever believed in me before. I never even had a family before. He asked me to join SHIELD. He never said I wasn't a good fit like I'd been hearing all my life….how did you end up joining SHIELD?

"Nick Fury recruited me," Logan told her.

Talking about his missions with Fury was a good distraction from everything else on her mind. After several stories about Fury and Logan and the rest of their team at the time, the cell tower came into view. The tower sat in an open area surrounded by several small buildings and more notably, Russian military vehicles.

"Great…" Daisy muttered on seeing that.

Logan nodded his agreement. "You're gonna have to call Coulson. We interfere in a Russian Military project without authorization it will mean a lot of trouble."

Daisy sent a text. "Looks like Russian Military is involved. Orders?"

The reply came moments later. "Survey and wait for further instructions."

"I guess we keep watch and wait," Daisy said, clearing the snow off a nearby fallen log she sait down to watch.

"How about you stay here and I'll go around the buildings and see if there's a road out," Logan said. "Might as well get our bearings if we're stuck here."

Daisy supposed that "survey" could include taking a look around. She should offer to go with him but she honestly worn out from the strain of holding back her powers all day. "Okay, be careful."

"I'm always careful," Logan stayed under the tree line and headed east around the buildings.

Daisy waited patiently for almost fifteen minutes before Logan came back. "Well, what did you find?"

"There's a gravel road out of here, several more jeeps on the other side, saw a few people in uniform going in and out, and our Yeti creature is here. I didn't see it but I smelled it." Logan told her. "Any word from Coulson?"

"No, nothing yet."

"Then I guess we wait," Logan sat down next to her on the fallen log.

Daisy heard the approaching footsteps at the same time as Logan did. They had been sitting there for hours and were discussing whether they should go back to the motel and wait for orders or try to camp out nearby for the night. It was already starting to get dark out. Daisy was on her feet with her gun in her hand the moment she heard the sound. Logan was just as fast, standing and claws out in the same instant. Whatever it was, it was taking it's time to reach them.

"Think that's our cyborg yeti beast coming?" Daisy asked him.

Logan shook his head. "No, it smells human."

The sound of someone trudging through the snow grew louder and the HE came within sight, Calvin Zabo.

"Daisy!" He called out much too loudly for how close they were to the military facility, a huge grin spread across his face.

"Dad…" Daisy said warily her gun still in her hand but at her side. "You shouldn't be here. How did you find me?"

"Well that was the easy part. You never changed your phone number. I guess you thought you didn't need to since I wouldn't remember it or you after what they did to me. All I had to do was trace the signal." Calvin said as he approached them. "The hard part was figuring out why every time I saw Daisy growing outside I kept having these weird and beautiful memories. Those memories led me to seek out the truth. Now that I've found you we can be together again. We can be a family!" Calvin had almost reached her, his arms out as if to embrace her.

Daisy took a few steps back to avoid touching him and bumped into Logan behind her nearly falling over.

"Take a step back and keep your voice down, bub," Logan said, his hands on Daisy's upper arms to keep her from falling.

"Who are you to keep me from my daughter?" Cal started shouting. "I have searched for her, I have killed for her. You can't…"

Daisy raised her gun. "Shut up Dad."

"D-Daisy…" Calvin put his hands up and spoke far more quietly. "You wouldn't shoot your own father. Not after everything I have done for you. I may not be a great man but I am still your father and-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Logan cut him off. Cal went quiet and Logan went on, "You're gonna turn around and go back the way you came. We'll be right behind you."

Calvin looked skeptical but he turned without a word and headed back the direction he had come. Daisy and Logan began to follow him. They hadn't gone more than fifty feet when Calvin suddenly turned and pulled the gun from Daisy's hand. She hadn't expected that and her hands were too sore to maintain much of a grip anyway. Calvin immediately took aim at Logan. "My daughter isn't going to work for SHIELD anymore. She doesn't understand the evils of that organization but given time she will. So we're going to leave and you're not going to follow us."

"No, I don't think that's how this is gonna play out," Logan said. His hands were at his sides and Daisy knew from the stories he had told her and from what she had seen during the avalanche that Logan would be just fine if Calvin did shoot at him. He was probably only holding back because a gunshot would be too much noise this close to all those soldiers.

"I'm not going anywhere with you. Put the gun down," Daisy told her father but she could see by the maniacal look in his eyes that he had no intention of doing any such thing.

"Daisy...Daisy, how can you be on his side?" Calvin started to plead with her. "How can you work with these people? Don't you understand what they did to me? SHIELD erased my memory! They took my daughter from me twice and the second time they tried to make me forget you even existed. If that isn't evil I don't know what is. Come with me...come home…"

Daisy couldn't help it, she started to cry. "I can't. SHIELD isn't what you think," Her father didn't know that the memory wipe had been her idea. He would feel even more betrayed if he ever learned the truth. The ground began to tremble. "Put down the gun."

"I won't! I won't put it down. I won't lose you again Daisy. You come with me or I'll shoot him!" Cal insisted.

Daisy raised her hand and released a quake at her father. It was too much. She knew it would be too much the moment she did it because there was too much emotion involved. She wasn't focused. Cal was knocked to the ground and instantly unconscious. Daisy collapsed to her knees crying. The last thing she had wanted to do was to quake her own father. The man was volatile and unstable and belonged in prison but he was still her father. She hadn't had a lot of choice though. If he had fired the gun then Logan would have at least been hurt and everyone nearby would have been alerted to their presence. She crawled a little closer to where her father lay on the ground and checked his pulse. He still had one. Daisy wasn't really aware of the fact that she was crying or that the ground was still trembling beneath her. She was only dimly aware of it when Logan pulled her to her feet and hugged her. After a few minutes Daisy realized that the ground had stopped shaking. Her tears had ended and she didn't want to let go of him just yet. She tore herself away from him anyway.

"What do we do with him?" Daisy asked about unconscious Cal on the ground.

"I could tie him up. Take him to a hospital under arrest for SHIELD to pick up."

She shook her head. "He's gonna heal soon. Maybe someone can pick him up."

"You should have told me he heals," Logan said moving to find something to tie Cal up with.

Daisy took out her phone to check with Coulson and found a new text from him. She read it aloud to Logan. "Do not engage target. Retreat to Omsk. Call once there."

Logan sighed. "Ivan's not going to be happy about this. None of the people in that village are."

Daisy nodded her agreement and saw movement from the corner of her eye. Calvin was awake and had gotten hold of the forgotten gun on the ground. He raised it and he fired. Logan stumbled only slightly when the bullet hit his shoulder. He turned to Cal, claws extended.

"Put the gun down or this is gonna get messy," Logan said, a bit of anger in his tone.

Cal didn't move. Daisy realized that since the both of them could heal any fight between them could go on a long while. More bullets would be fired, there would be blood on the ground. That wasn't what they needed in a place like this. She raised her hand and quaked her father a second time. Logan immediately picked the man up and slung him over his shoulder.

"We've got nothing to tie him."Logan said "let's just get as far away as we can before he wakes up."

Daisy agreed and picked up the gun and went with him.


	9. Chapter 9

They hadn't gone far in the growing darkness before Calvin woke up again and when he did he was angry, enraged was more the word. Logan silenced Calvin's angry scream by throwing him to the ground. The man was on his feet a moment later charging at Logan, screaming, "You can't keep my daughter from me!"

Logan's claws came out and ended Calvin's charge by hitting him in the chest and the belly. Calvin screamed and pulled himself free. He was healing rather rapidly and preparing to charge again.

Daisy raised her hand. "Dad stop this! I'll quake you again. I'll do it over and over again tonight if I have to. You can't win."

Calvin ignored her and Daisy went ahead and quaked him for the third time. When he fell to the ground Logan grabbed him up again. "We gotta find something strong enough to tie him up. The only thing we've got are shoelaces and that's not gonna do it. He's pretty strong."

Daisy agreed but she really didn't have any ideas of what they could use without returning to the village. They weren't going to get back there very fast if he kept waking up and fighting them every five minutes. "Maybe we should just tie him to a tree while he's out and then let him look for us. By the time he finds us again we'll have something to restrain him."

Logan looked hesitant to do that though. "Won't he kill more people trying to find you?"

"He might, but if those soldiers hear him screaming then more people are gonna get killed anyway," Daisy said. She really didn't like the idea anymore than he did. It would technically be disobeying their orders to arrest Calvin but she couldn't think of anything better. And they could always arrest him later when he caught up to them again.

"I need a shoelace," Logan said, putting Calvin on the ground with his back against a tree. Daisy took a shoelace out of one of her own boots. Logan tied Calvin's hands securely behind the tree trunk. It was a lot tighter than she could have tied it herself, probably so tight that it had broken bones. "This isn't gonna hold him for long. We gotta get moving...and you're gonna have to ditch your cell phone."

Daisy tossed the phone. It hurt to run. She hadn't been in this much pain for a long time. The pain had spread into more bones than had been hurting that morning. By the time they had gone half a mile she was in agony. She needed to stop but she refused to ask for that. If he could keep running then so could she. Then he suddenly stopped. If he had stopped to give her a break she was gonna kill him.

"Hear that?" Logan said.

Daisy slowed her ragged breathing so she could listen. It was some sort of siren or alarm in the distance. "That's from back at the facility isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's not gonna be just your Dad looking for us anymore," he said.

"Great," Daisy muttered. "That's just what we need."

"We can't go back to the village," Logan told her. "Everyone in that village knows we were SHIELD. That's the first place they're gonna look."

"So where do we go?" Daisy asked a little worried.

"I'd say we should just keep moving but I'm not sure you can."

"I can…" Daisy tried to protest but she knew it wasn't even a believable lie.

"I can move faster if I just carry you," Logan said and before she could protest he had picked her up and started moving again. It turned out he was a lot faster carrying her than he had been running before. They were probably moving at twenty five miles an hour while he carried her. He had apparently been going slow so she could keep up. He went to the northwest, around the village. The strain on her bones was greatly eased by not having to run. Almost three hours later, probably seventy from where they'd started, Logan stopped. There was a frozen lake nearby and a cave. Logan set Daisy on her feet and went to check out the cave.

"Cave is clear. We should rest here for the night and tomorrow start heading back towards Omsk," Logan told her.

Daisy helped him to gather wood for a fire and once it was started she sat down next to it in the mouth of of the cave, in too much pain to do anything else. Logan disappeared for a short time and returned with a large fish. She didn't ask him how he'd caught it.

"You doing okay?" Logan asked as they ate a meal of fish.

"I'm fine," Daisy said, though it wasn't strictly true. He knew that though.

"How fast is Calvin? Is he gonna catch up to us?"

"I don't know," Daisy said, quite honestly. "If he has superhuman strength then I imagine he can travel pretty fast too."

"How about you get some sleep and I'll keep watch for a while," He suggested.

"You just ran for three hours. Don't you need sleep?"

"Not as much as you do. You've got new fractures that need healing. Just sleep. I'll be fine."

Daisy wanted to argue with him but she was just too exhausted to bother. She soon fell into an uncomfortable and cold sleep.

Daisy awoke the next morning with a cold throbbing ache in her bones. The fire was nearly out and Logan was asleep where he sat nearby. Daisy dragged herself to her feet and headed for the woods. She came back with a little dead wood for the fire.

"Sleep okay?" he asked as she placed her wood on the fire.

"Alright I suppose," she said, deciding not to complain about the cold or the pain, or all the stress on her mind. "You didn't hear or smell anything during the night? No signs we were followed?"

Logan shook his head. "Nope. Maybe those military guys got your father before he could come after us. Someone went out to check out the gunshot and found him. Maybe that's why the alarms went off."

Daisy sat down next to him with a sigh. "My father ruined this whole mission. He's always ruining things."

"What else is family good for?" he commented. "Besides trying to kill you and fucking up your life?"

"Your father too?"

"My brother," Logan told her. Then he stood. "Keep an eye on the fire. I'm gonna get some food."

A short time later he came back with more fish. "There's a town across the lake," Logan told her. "I could see some smoke from chimneys on the other side."

"We should probably go there then. Someone might have a phone."

They took their time crossing the lake. Logan didn't want Daisy to accidentally crack the ice with her powers. They found a narrow road on the other side leading past a gas station and a few houses. The first two houses had no one at home. The third allowed them to use the phone.

Daisy dialed Phil's number and got an error tone and a message saying the number she had reached was no longer in service. She tried the SHIELD office directly. "Hi, this is Agent Daisy Johnson. ID number 124363. I need to speak with Phil Coulson please."

"I'm sorry, we have no record of any agents with that identification." A female voice on the line replied.

"No record? That's impossible. What about agent…?" Daisy looked at Logan questioningly, realizing she didn't know his full name.

"James Logan Howlett." he said.

She repeated the name and ID number. "I'm sorry we have no record of that agent either."

"There has to be a record…" Daisy started to argue.

"I know what happened," Logan said. "No point in staying here. Let's go."

"We've been disavowed haven't we?" Daisy said as they went back outside to the narrow road.

"Yeah. We have."

"Okay, but Coulson will send help. He wouldn't just abandon me," Daisy said, sure that it was the truth.

"I'm sure he will if he can," Logan said, starting to follow the road south.

"You don't think he can?"

"Probably not. Whatever was going on back there at that military place wasn't something we were supposed to be involved with. Coulson is gonna be under a lot of pressure about now. No matter his personal feelings, he'll be watched pretty closely. He's not gonna be able to send help. We're on our own." Logan said.

"Okay… so where do we go? What do we do?" Daisy asked, hardly able to believe what was happening.

"We keep moving until this starts to blow over."

"And after that?" Daisy asked, afraid of what the answer might be.

"After that we start over."


	10. Chapter 10

As expected, the SHIELD credit card was declined when they tried it. Logan had a limited amount of cash for supplies. Enough to buy food they could carry, blankets, and a few cooking utensils. That was it. After that they were truly on their own.

"So are we gonna go to Omsk or what?" Daisy asked him. She was honestly a little worried at this point about what he would do next. If they were truly disavowed, then the mission was no longer on the table and they could be stuck in Russia for a long time. Logan could make it just fine on his own here. It didn't look like much of anything could kill him. He spoke the language too and could probably find work for cash doing some sort of manual labor. Daisy wasn't in nearly as good of a position to survive here. She didn't speak the language very well. She had no gauntlets and could cause a lot of trouble without meaning to, and being covered in bruises she looked like trouble. No one would want to hire and American woman who was looked like she'd been manhandled by a drug dealer. If Logan wanted to go off alone, she would be have some difficulty surviving. He had no real reason to stick with her after this.

"Better stay away from the city for now."

Those words didn't do much to reassure her. She figured it was only a matter of time before he decided he could move faster and survive better without her slowing him down. It would be the truth too.

They spent three days traveling and camping out in rural areas. Daisy felt like every bone in her body was fractured. The strain of holding back her powers, the cold permeating her body, the time spent worrying about being abandoned again was all taking a toll on her. The third evening sitting by their campfire a small quake began.

"Hey...you okay?" Logan asked her as the tremors began.

"I'm fine," she lied, knowing he wouldn't believe a word of it.

"You seemed fine the last couple days but there's something wrong now or we wouldn't be sitting here vibrating," he said, a little impatient.

"I'm fine!" she insisted, forcing her powers under control and not without a great deal of pain. The quake ended and Logan was still looking at her concerned and skeptical. She couldn't tell him how afraid she was of being abandoned again. If she told him he might feel obligated to stay with her and then she would only be a burden. The only choice was to just keep it to herself and be as helpful as possible. "I'm gonna get some more wood for the fire."

By the time she came back with firewood, Logan was on his feet, claws extended at his sides, and his eyes were focused on something in the distance.

"What is it?" Daisy said, dropping her firewood to the ground.

The she heard it too, footsteps. "Is it Calvin? He might have escaped…"

"It's not Cal. It's Victor." Logan said. Daisy knew by now that Victor was his brother and that the pair did not get along but she knew little else. "Stay out of the way. This is gonna take a while," he said. "And if I don't survive, run."

"Jimmy!" A voice called in the distance. "Put away the claws Jimmy. I'm not here to kill you."

"Yeah, then what are you here for?" Logan replied, clearly not believing a word of it.

"I'm here for her," Victor said, coming into sight at that moment. He was a bit larger man than Logan, wore a long blue wool coat, and carried two backpacks. "Daisy Johnson."

Logan raised his fists with claws still out. "You're gonna have to get through me first."

Victor started to laugh. "It's not like that brother," He stopped walking some twenty feet away from where Logan stood. "I'm not here to kill her. I'm here to save her...and you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Logan said.

Victor tossed one of the backpacks he carried to land at Daisy's feet. "Woman by the name of Simmons looked me up two days ago. She said you'd need that Daisy."

Daisy knelt down and opened the bag. Inside she found a couple of changes of warm clothes, toiletries, a cell phone, a laptop, cash, two fake IDs for her and Logan, and gauntlets of a new design. Daisy couldn't help but burst into tears. SHIELD hadn't abandoned her. Not really. "This is from Jemma," She told Logan. "She sent new gauntlets."

"However much she paid you to bring this stuff, I'll pay you double to get the hell out of here now," Logan told him.

Victor shrugged. "She didn't pay me to bring the stuff. She paid me to make sure her friend Daisy doesn't get killed by Cal Zabo or Russian intelligence. It's good money, so that's what I'm gonna do."

"Why you?" Logan asked, still not happy about the idea in the least.

"She needed someone who could track Daisy down without technology. Someone who wasn't affiliated with SHIELD. There aren't too many people around who can track by scent. I went to the coordinates where Daisy sent her last text and followed the trail here."

"We don't need your help, Victor. I don't know what Simmons was thinking. We're doing just fine." Logan said.

"There's some stuff you don't know brother. You need my help. Cal Zabo was captured by Russian military. They only managed to hold him a few hours and when he escaped he let something out...something the Russians can't quite control but it looks like maybe Zabo can control it. They're coming for you...and nobody kills you but me."

"I brought some food," Victor told them as Logan reluctantly agreed to let him stay. Victor sat down by their fire, opened his bag, and actually handed out sandwiches.

It was the first real food Daisy had eaten in days that hadn't come from a can or the wild so she was pretty thankful to have it. She finished the food and inched a little closer to the fire, still shivering. The pain in her arms was eased though by the gauntlets Jemma had sent so it would at least be a little easier to sleep now.

"How did you get all bruised up?" Victor asked her from the other side of the fire.

"My powers do that to me if I don't wear these," Daisy said, holding up her arm to show the fingerless gloves that Jemma had sent for new gauntlets. She put her hand back in her lap and tried once again to stop shivering.

Victor got to his feet, took off his long wool jacket, went around the fire and draped the jacket over her shoulders. "I don't get cold," He explained. "I just wear the jacket because I like it."

"Thank you," Daisy a little surprised by this gesture given that the only things she had heard about Victor before now had all been negative things. It was warmer with the extra jacket. Warm enough that she could actually fall asleep without shivering so much as before. She woke sometime in the night to the brothers talking.

"It's true, she offered me fifty thousand dollars," Victor was saying.

"I don't believe a word of it. There's no way a SHIELD agent has that kind of money," Logan replied. "What are you really doing here?"

"I'm not the same as I was Jimmy. I'm not so much an animal anymore," Victor tried to explain. "Simmons came to me and asked me to help my brother and her friend. I guess she thought we were like normal families and I'd run to save you. I told her I'd been trying to kill you for years. She got pretty mad about that and said she didn't know or care what was going on between me and my brother but her friend Daisy didn't deserve to die and that I was the only one who could help her. I told her to get out of my face or I'd snap her like a twig. She backed off and didn't even seem scared. Then she left a picture of Daisy and that bag of stuff and told me she knew that in the end I would do the right thing. I wasn't gonna come. I got up the next morning and found that picture on my kitchen table and changed my mind...those eyes…"

"So why did you say there was money involved?" Logan asked him.

"Are you kidding me? Never tell a woman you are rescuing them for free. That'll start all sorts of trouble."

"Yeah, I suppose it could do that," Logan agreed.

Daisy wasn't sure she liked the idea of being rescued but she did appreciate that Jemma had been able to secure some help. A short time later Daisy managed to sleep again, feeling a lot less worried than she had all week.


	11. Chapter 11

Daisy had enough cash in the bag that Jemma had given her that she wanted to seek out a rural motel the next day. She needed warmth and a real bed and real food and didn't care what Logan or Victor had to say about it. Things between the brothers had been tense all day. They were speaking but there was still this tension in the air that Daisy couldn't quite figure out. Of course not having any idea why they hated each other in the first place didn't make it any easier.

Victor seemed like he was an okay person though. He had been nice to her all day. He bought her new mittens at a store they stopped at because the ones she was wearing had a hole in them. He talked to her a lot too, asking questions about where she was from and about her family which was very unlike the way Logan had been when they first met. So she told him about the foster care and the fact that she didn't really have any family unless Calvin counted. Victor actually seemed saddened by that. However, the nicer he was to her the more angry Logan became.

"I want to find a motel. I have enough cash to stay a couple nights," Daisy said late that afternoon. "The thing is I can't make it last if I have to get two rooms but a double room isn't …" Daisy trailed off awkwardly.

"I'm not sharing a bed with you bub," Logan said to Victor.

"That's alright. I can always share with Daisy. She likes me well enough," Victor said jokingly.

Daisy wasn't amused and was about to say so when Logan spoke up. "You can sleep on the floor." he told Victor.

"I don't see why anyone needs to sleep on the floor. You could share with Daisy….but I guess she doesn't trust you or else you'd have been keeping her warm at night all this time instead of letting her freeze out there." Victor commented.

Logan only stared at Victor for a moment, his hands were at his sides and his claws were slowly protruding from his knuckles.

"I wasn't frozen," Daisy spoke up before it could descend into an actual fight. "I was warm enough. I'm fine."

"Cold doesn't bother him either you know?" Victor said. "Did he ever give you an extra jacket?"

"I didn't," Logan said, "But I'm not the one playing games with her mind."

"Games? She's your partner. But I guess that is how you like to treat partners. You just walk away in the middle of a mission. Can't be bothered to help when it counts."

"That wasn't a mission. That was a slaughter. I haven't walked away from this partner and I'm not going to. What the hell are you really up to?" Logan demanded.

Victor grinned a toothy grin. "Just helping out my brother is all. No worries, I'll sleep on the floor tonight."

By the time they found a motel, Daisy was pretty worn out from the tense atmosphere. She wanted to just tell them both to shut the hell up but it would have been pointless because they weren't actually talking all that much. There were just these long sullen silences. Once they were checked into a room Daisy immediately locked herself in the bathroom for a shower and a change of clothes. She was about to undress and realized that the lock on the door would do absolutely nothing to keep either of her companions out. She wasn't worried about Logan. She'd been alone with him for a week. He had never been a problem, but Victor? She wasn't sure what to make of him. Even so, the shower was needed so she'd just have to hope he would behave himself.

Daisy finished her routine quickly and went back out into the double room. She found Logan was sitting at the end of one of the beds looking uncomfortable and Victor was sprawled out with his eyes closed on the other bed. Logan stood as soon as she entered the room.

"You can have the bed. He's refusing to move," Logan said, "I'm not gonna fight him over a fucking bed."

"You shouldn't have to sleep on the floor," Daisy didn't think it was fair that he sleep on the floor. He'd been stuck in the woods just as long as she had.

"It's not a problem," Logan shrugged.

"No I mean...the bed is large enough...there's room to share. It's fine," she wasn't worried about sharing with him. It might be awkward but it would be safe enough.

Logan sighed. "He said you would say that," he glared at his sleeping brother.

"Why? What is his deal?" Daisy asked him quietly, hoping that Victor really was asleep.

"I think he still wants to kill me, but before he does he plans to mess with me a little," he explained but it really wasn't much of an explanation. "It's a little like a cat playing with its food before he eats it."

"I don't see how it has anything to do with me," Daisy said, confused.

"You will. Whatever happens after this, don't trust him," he told her.

"I won't," Daisy agreed. "Why don't we just leave while he's asleep?"

"We wouldn't get far. He can track us. We haven't got the resources to leave the country so we actually could use his help if Calvin catches up to us. Victor will help us with that but after that's done...after that's done, you gotta get as far away from him as possible."

Daisy was skeptical of this plan. " Can he kill you? I'm supposed to just leave and let him do that?"

"You have to," he said firmly, grasping her shoulders a little too tightly. "When he tries to kill me, you can't be involved. You got that?"

"Okay fine," Daisy said, pulling away from him. Those two brothers and their feud didn't make any sense to her and she wasn't so sure she would be able to just run off and leave him to possibly get killed either when the time came. That's not what friends were supposed to do for each other.

The constant ache that had been with Daisy all week was finally starting to fade when she woke up the next morning. It was a relief just to not be in so much pain. Logan was already up by the time she woke up. He had waited until she went to sleep to go to bed so she really hadn't even noticed his presence anyway.

"I'm gonna find some work today," Logan said as they had breakfast. "We could use the money. You're coming with me Victor."

"You're gonna leave Daisy all alone?" Victor asked, sounding concerned in a mocking sort of way.

"Well I'm not leaving her with you," Logan said.

"That hurts. It cuts me deeply," Victor said.

"I can show you what being cut deeply is like," Logan replied.

"I think you've already shown me that one before," Victor almost sounded amused about it. "Got anything new?"

"I'm sure I can think of something."

"Guys, stop it!" Daisy said, "No one is cutting anyone today."

For a short time it almost seemed like they had listened to her. The sullen silence resumed and Daisy finished her breakfast in relative peace. Logan got to his feet and headed towards the door.

"Let's go Victor."

"You were serious about all that?" Victor said.

"Not the part about cutting you, the part about working."

"I hate work," Victor said, "Besides, someone needs to be here in case Calvin comes looking for his daughter."

"I think I can manage just fine," Daisy said, annoyed.

"I hope so…" Victor said, and then he moved to follow Logan. "I would hate it if anything happened to you."

Once the two men were gone Daisy took out her laptop, connected to WiFi and set to work trying to pinpoint where her father might be. She started searching for sightings, news reports, satellite pictures, surveillance cameras. She found several sightings, the most recent was six hours earlier and only fifty miles away. If he knew where to look, her father could be nearby at any moment.

Then Daisy spent the next several hours on a hacking project. A paid hacking project. It wasn't technically legal but the person she was hacking wasn't exactly innocent so she didn't let it bother her too much. She wouldn't have been able to do this if not for Jemma but now in spite of her bruises she had a means of making money. When the project was complete, she went to the motel lobby and printed off a coin wallet with all her earnings. The only thing left to do was to either find an exchange or a person who would buy it.

Logan and Victor returned late that evening smelling like pine and sawdust. Apparently they had been at work cutting trees. They brought back a couple hundred in cash as well as food for supper.

"Productive day?" Daisy asked as she put away her laptop and they joined her at the table.

"Was a little more productive for me than it was for him," Victor said. "They pay us by the tree. How much more money did I get than you?"

"Don't know. Don't care," Logan said as he sat down.

"Well between the two of us we got enough to stay at this dumpy motel for a week ad eat plenty too."

"We can't stay here much longer. My father was spotted fifty miles away this morning." Daisy told them.

"If he were here already we'd know it. We could just head out in the morning," Logan suggested.

As soon as he was finished eating, Victor disappeared into the bathroom and the shower came on.

"Find out anything else today?" Logan asked her.

"No but I found a hacking project. Earned almost nine hundred dollars. I just have to find a place I can exchange coin."

"You earned more than we did," Logan sounded a little impressed. "Victor would be mad about that."

Daisy tried not to smile. "Why? He doesn't like earning less than a woman?"

"He doesn't."

"It doesn't seem to bother you," she pointed out.

"Guess not."

"Does anything bother you?" Daisy asked him, merely curious.

Logan thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, sometimes I get pretty angry."

The water turned off in the bathroom and Logan had his eyes on the door. Daisy realized he was trying to figure out how he was going to take a shower and not leave her alone with Victor.

"Go ahead," she told him. "I'll be fine."

Logan still looked hesitant to move.

"Do you really not trust him that much?" she asked.

"You didn't hear what he said last night and no, I'm not going to repeat it. We probably have nothing to worry about tonight anyway…" Logan said as if he were trying to convince himself.

"I have these, remember?" Daisy held up her arm still wearing gauntlets. "I'll be fine."

"Yeah, that could work." Logan agreed, though somewhat warily and he went into the bathroom when Victor came out.

Daisy took out her computer and did her best to ignore Victor while Logan wasn't in the room. He wasn't about to be ignored though. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her a little too close wearing jeans and a white sleeveless shirt. Daisy took her chair and inched it away from him.

"I'm not gonna bite," Victor said with a laugh.

"I'd think I'd rather sit over here anyway," Daisy said.

"I see how it is," Victor said somewhat amused. "You're okay with sharing a bed with my brother but if I so much as sit next to you, you gotta run away."

"I think you're being a little dramatic," Daisy was annoyed, "You didn't even leave my arm space to type. I moved so I can type. That's all."

"But you didn't need space to sleep last night?"

"I had enough space."

"Good to know. I guess it isn't like I thought," he said with a shrug.

Daisy knew she shouldn't ask for an explanation but she found herself asking anyway. "What isn't like you thought?"

"Women always love my brother. Everywhere he goes...I figured there had to be something going on by now…." Victor said. "It's good thing there's not. He always leaves and breaks their hearts."

Daisy didn't know what to say. She supposed Logan was good looking enough for an older guy. But why did Victor even care what might be going on between them? She didn't believe Victor cared about her. Not yet anyway when they had just met. He was definitely playing some sort of sick game with his brother and apparently she was caught in the middle.

"What did you tell him last night while I was in the shower?" Daisy asked, figuring it was worth a try.

"You weren't in there that long. Wasn't time to tell him much of anything."

Daisy knew better. Victor had said something and whatever it was had disturbed her partner a great deal. "No you said something he didn't like."

Victor glanced over at the bathroom door and then back at Daisy. "I said a lot of things he didn't like. I told him you were too pretty for neither of us to have and if he wasn't gonna take advantage of his opportunities, I would. Except I didn't say it quite so politely."

Daisy felt sick and angry. "What the hell is wrong with you? If you were gonna take advantage of me, why involve him?"

"Because when I kill him, I want to make sure he leaves behind someone he cares about and if I can't do that, I can at least hurt someone he cares about."

"He doesn't care about me. Not really," Daisy argued.

"He cares. Jimmy always cares. That's the difference between him and me."

The bathroom door clicked open about then and Logan came out. He didn't look too pleased and Daisy realized that with his acute hearing, he'd probably heard everything.

Daisy found that she was really thankful that Logan was sleeping next to her that night. Not for the reasons that Victor had wanted. She was simply thankful that he was between her and Victor on the other side of the room. Though Daisy wasn't ordinarily helpless, she had needed a lot of help on this mission and Logan had done a lot to protect her and help her. He hadn't abandoned her even though he'd had plenty of chances to do so. So many people had abandoned her in her life. Of course she knew he might still leave, if they survived, he might still leave after her father was stopped, but she was pretty sure he was sticking around until then.

Sometime late that night Daisy dreamed she was back home with SHIELD. Except no one in the office would talk to her. She'd try to speak to them and they'd just turn away. One by one, Jemma, Fitz, Mack, Mae, and Phil, all turned away from her and wouldn't acknowledge she was even talking to them. Then her father showed up and was giving one of his monologues about bringing her home. Grant Ward stepped in and said he'd get rid of Calvin but at the last moment he turned his gun on Daisy and she raised her arm to quake him before he fired. Daisy awoke with a start and realised she had quaked the motel room.

"What the hell was that?" Victor was already out of bed.

"Hey…" Logan said in the darkness, his hand on her arm. "It was just a dream…"

"She did that?" Victor asked, a little stunned.

"Yeah, that's her power. That was a small quake too," Logan explained.

"Huh. Well that makes things a little more interesting," Victor got back into bed.

Daisy sniffled. She had already been crying in her dream and she found it wasn't so easy to stop now. She was trying to at least keep quiet if not stop altogether but she knew Logan could hear her. Probably Victor could too. It was all too much, the entire situation was just too much to handle. She knew she shouldn't move from where she was because Victor would probably get wrong idea but she was past the point of caring what Victor might do. Daisy rolled closer to Logan's side of the bed and hugged him. He didn't seem to mind. He hugged her in return and just let her cry.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Logan told her.

"Isn't that sweet," Victor spoke up.

"Shut the fuck up Victor!" Logan said.

Victor chuckled and went quiet after that.

After Daisy managed to stop crying she pulled away from Logan and went to sleep on her side of the bed but even then she still clung to Logan's hand.


	12. Chapter 12

Daisy woke up the next morning before Logan or Victor woke up. She was still holding Logan's hand and almost started crying all over again. She didn't want him to die or to leave and in the end one of those two things were going to happen, she just knew it. Victor was stronger than he was, if anyone could kill Logan, Victor could. Even if Victor decided not to kill him this time, or if they could manage to beat Victor, Logan still might leave. Everyone always left her.

Daisy bit back her tears and reached for her laptop on the bedside stand. She opened it and started looking to find out where her father might be. He wasn't far away, only a couple of miles, both him and that creature he'd stolen. The news reports were saying he hadn't killed anyone but several people were hospitalized and buildings were ruined.

Apparently her father was pretty determined to find her. He'd been determined to find her most of her life. The man had a terrible method for reaching her but he had at least been consistent. He was the only person in her life with that kind of commitment to her. She couldn't live with him though. Not after the things he had done, the people he had killed, the insanity that followed him everywhere. His idea that they were going to be a family was a fantasy, but he was still the only the family she had. Maybe she could use that.

Daisy closed the computer and quietly slipped out of bed. She picked up her boots and jacket and left the motel room as slowly and silently as possible. She put on her boots and jacket outside the door and set off to the coordinates where she knew she would find her father. This could end badly and she knew it. He might not listen to reason. Actually, there was a pretty good chance he wouldn't listen to reason. And while she was out Logan and Victor might kill each other anyway but she would never know if she didn't at least try.

Daisy was less than a mile from the location when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and found Logan approaching.

"Where are you going Daisy?" he asked her. Victor was nowhere in sight so that was a good sign.

Daisy bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him. He wouldn't like it. "There's something I have to do. I'll be back in like an hour."

"You know where your father is, don't you?"

She nodded.

"You shouldn't go alone. He might not let you leave."

"I don't care…" Daisy said, unable to hold back her tears.

"Well you need to care."

"Why?" Daisy crossed her arms across her chest. "Give me one reason why I should care?"

"Cause you could have a better future than some sort of captive daughter of a madman," Logan said.

"Which future would that be? The one where the people I care about die or the one where they leave me?" Daisy said, more angry and emotional than she had intended.

Logan looked a little hurt by that. He crossed the distance between them and put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen kid, I don't know how this is all gonna turn out...I can tell you though that I've had a lot of partners over the years and a lot of friends. If I make it through this, I'll make sure you know where to find me. You're a good fit."

Daisy gasped. "You really mean that?" He didn't answer. He just hugged her. It wasn't the same as a promise to stay but it still meant something. It meant a great deal. After a while Daisy pulled away. "I have to talk to my father. I think I can convince him to help us."

"I think that's a bad idea."

Daisy shrugged. "I have to try.."

Daisy agreed to let Logan go with her most of the way to talk with her father. He'd leave them to speak alone but he'd stay nearby in any case. They hadn't gone far before Victor caught up to them.

"Where do you two think you're going?" Victor said, still a distance away.

"Just walking," Logan said tersely.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think they two of you wanted to spend some time alone," Victor taunted as he caught up to them.

"All I wanted was some fresh air," Daisy said though she didn't expect he would believe it.

"It's not fresh air out here," Victor said. "Air smells the same as it did when I started tracking you two, which means Calvin Zabo isn't far away. But if it's fresh air you want…" Victor put a hand on Daisy's back before she could even react. She felt his sharp fingernail claws tear through the back of her jacket and slowly shred it into tatters as it fell from her body. He cut her shirt in a few places too but never harmed her skin.

Logan's claws were out and he was tense, probably about to attack Victor. Daisy raised a hand to stop him. "Don't. Logan don't. I'm not hurt. I'm fine."

Victor grinned. "Hear that? She's fine. No need to get all riled up."

Daisy turned to Victor, "Do something like that to me again and I'll quake you."

Victor only laughed. "Bad news Jimmy. There are military vehicles parked out by the motel. They got people checking rooms. Lucky for us I grabbed our stuff before I left," He passed Daisy her bag, Logan his, and held on to his own.

"So we can't go back and you're not interested in letting us go forward," Logan stated, waiting to see what Victor was going to suggest they do next.

"We go that way," Victor set off for the woods. Daisy and Logan reluctantly followed him. "We go on foot to another town, pick up a ride, maybe a room. I don't really feel like fighting the whole Russian army today. Might as well put some distance between them and us."

It didn't take long for Daisy to get cold without a jacket. She stopped and pulled out the two sweaters Jemma had sent to her and put on both of them. It helped but it wasn't enough. Victor kept them moving at a pretty quick pace, a lot faster than Daisy was used to. She was physically fit but she didn't have the speed or endurance that Logan and Victor had. The third time that Daisy stumbled and fell Logan went back to help her up.

"You gotta slow down Victor," Logan told his brother.

"If she can't keep up I could carry her," Victor said.

"I can keep up," Daisy said, seeing how tense Logan had become at Victor's words. Logan ignored her and picked her up and carried her himself.

They actually did keep a much faster pace without Daisy struggling to keep up with them. In a few hours they stopped to eat and then started off again because Victor wasn't ready to stop yet. All day they kept moving. Daisy hated it. It made her feel helpless to just be carried all day. She was cold and her arm was cramped against Logan and falling asleep. Plus the fact that she knew he didn't want to be stuck alone on the wilderness with Victor. He was only following Victor to try to keep her safe a little longer, because he was convinced that Victor wouldn't let anyone else kill him. It was a miserable day and by the time Victor stopped to make camp for the night, Daisy was worn and frazzled.

"We don't need a fire," Victor said as Logan started to gather wood.

"Yeah we do," Logan said, ignoring him and continuing to pile up wood.

"You and me slept outside in the snow a hundred times. We don't need a fire. If you're worried about her, keep her warm yourself," Victor tossed a blanket at Logan's head. With a sigh, Logan went to Daisy and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders.

Just one wool blanket wasn't enough. Not without her jacket, not in these extreme temperatures. Logan took off his leather jacket and gave her that too. She put it on and wrapped herself in the blanket again, still shivering.

"She's still cold," Victor pointed out. "If you don't want to keep her warm then I will." Victor started to her and without even thinking twice Daisy raised her hand and she quaked him. There was no way in hell she was sharing a blanket and keeping warm with him. Her quake, thrown in anger was a large one, not the largest she was capable of, but large enough to knock him on his back to the ground with a great deal of force and hold him there for a good three seconds.

Victor got to his feet growling and angry as the quake ended. He took a few steps towards Daisy and she raised her hand again. Logan had his claws out. "I could do this all night," Victor said, "Or you can let Jimmy keep you warm. Your choice."

"Fine," Daisy agreed. She was going to have to keep warm somehow anyway and she wasn't sure she had the energy or endurance to truly fight Victor at this point or if she ever would.

It really wasn't so bad wrapped up in the blanket with her partner. Daisy lay on her side facing him and he kept his arms around her like they had when she had hugged him. It was a lot warmer this way than it had been any of the other nights they'd spent in the woods. He was warm and safe and she could hear his heartbeat against her ear. Maybe in other circumstances it might have been relaxing but in this case she couldn't relax enough to sleep. She couldn't stop trying to figure out why Victor was behaving like this. What was he trying to accomplish?

"Why is he doing this?" Daisy asked quietly once she heard Victor's snores.

"To prove a point."

"And what point would that be?"

"That he can hurt me and that I can be just as much of a beast as he can," Logan explained.

"I don't see how…" Daisy didn't quite understand how Victor was accomplishing either of those things."

"I shouldn't even tell you this...especially not here...He told me rape you," Logan said, angry to admit it. "He said I'd have plenty of opportunities and if I didn't do it then he would. Of course I told him it would never happen. He said that the deal is, he'll help keep you alive until all of our troubles blow over or we kill the people after us and he won't lay a finger on you if I admit once and for all that I'm just as much an animal as he is. That's the only way you get to live. If I refuse to prove that to him, he'll make me watch while he…" Logan couldn't seem to finish the words. "It's not gonna happen though. Never like that. After the Russians get tired of looking for us and your father is somehow out of the picture, you have to run. I'll give you as much time as I can…"

Daisy felt sick and horrified and sad and so many other things she couldn't quite put into words. "That's really messed up," she finally said.

"Yeah," Logan agreed with her.

Daisy found herself starting to cry.

"Hey, I'm not gonna let him hurt you." he tried to reassure her.

"I'm not crying about that. I can put up a pretty good fight if I have to." she told him truthfully. She was afraid of Victor but that wasn't the thing that was bothering her most.

"Then why…?"

"How can he do that to you? Your own brother?" Daisy hugged him a little tighter. "My whole life I wanted to have a family but you were right. The only thing they're good for is fucking up your life….how can he do that to you?"

"Daisy are you for real?" Logan said with a sigh. "When Coulson told me you cared more about other people than yourself I didn't believe him...I haven't met too many people like that, like you. That's why I'm not gonna let Victor win."

"Okay, but if he does, don't let it change you," Daisy said.

"What?"

"If he kills me...if I don't survive this sadistic plan of his, you have to find a way to still care...about people and about life and about yourself. If you can't do that then he really does win."

"I never cared in the first place," Logan said.

"Yes you did. Promise me you won't stop."

"I don't do promises, but maybe I'll try."

***************************888

It wasn't until the next day when all three of them were walking towards civilization that Daisy had the crazy idea that could possibly fix their problem with Victor. Logan wasn't going to like it. In fact he was probably going to like even less than her idea to ask her father for help. She wasn't sure she even liked it herself or how exactly they would pull it off. But if it could be done, it would be better than what Victor wanted for them.

She waited until late that morning when Victor had wandered off to relieve himself before mentioning it to Logan, "I was thinking, what if we can make him believe you killed me?"

Logan thought for a moment. "Maybe...maybe that could work if it was staged right. Thing is, he'd want to see it, and see all the violence leading up to to it. I don't know how we'd pull that off."

"I'll think of something," Daisy said as she heard Victor returning to them.

They reached a town that day. It was a larger town than the last place so it had a slightly nicer hotel. They got checked into a room and Daisy pulled out her computer to see if there were any updates on her father's whereabouts or the status of the search for her and Logan. Victor tossed his bag on the floor in one corner and sprawled out on one of the beds.

"I think you should go get us some food Jimmy," Victor spoke up.

"I think you should get it yourself."

Daisy waited a little tensely for another argument to break out between the two of them but instead Victor simply got up and headed towards the door. He turned to them just before he left. "You two had better behave while I'm away."

"Was that supposed to be…?" Daisy began but didn't know how to finish the question,

"Yeah. An opportunity. Just forget it. See any sign we're being followed on that computer?"

"Well there's nothing about the military movements but I guess there wouldn't be. My father was seen thirty miles away, to the south."

"Not too far then. If Victor gets violent, maybe your best bet might be to go to your father. Maybe he'd help you and he'd be easier to escape than Victor," Logan suggested somewhat reluctantly.

"Just leave and let your brother try to kill you?"

"He's tried before. It didn't take. Besides, I thought we had an understanding that you were were going to leave when it came to that." Logan said.

"No. you had an understanding. My understanding is that I don't abandon people I care about."

"Daisy...there's no sense in getting yourself killed or hurt."

"Maybe I don't have to either one. Maybe we can give your brother what he thinks he wants," she argued.

"Even if we could make Victor believe you were dead, there would have to be evidence that it had been a violent death or he wouldn't be happy with it. He's smarter than you think and he has a good sense of smell. There would need to be blood, probably yours and mine. And he'd still need to be convinced that I raped you. There's no way we can fake something like that. He'd know it didn't smell right and he'd still try to kill you and me too." Logan said, frustrated.

"Well would he believe it if we actually did…?" Daisy found she couldn't complete the question. She found herself blushing and tried to focus her attention on her computer screen.

"Probably," Logan answered the question anyway. "But that's not the solution."

Daisy nodded her agreement wishing she had never voiced that question. She hoped it wouldn't ruin everything between them.

One thing the brothers had in common was their appetite. When Victor came back with food, the both of them ate a lot. Daisy didn't feel like eating but she made herself do it anyway. She knew she might need the energy sooner rather than later.

Daisy found a place to exchange her coin for cash and picked up a new jacket in a shop once that was done. She had very nearly made it to the register to buy the coat when Victor suddenly stopped.

"My brother needs new boots. Aren't you gonna help him out Daisy?" Victor said.

She hadn't noticed that Logan's boots were starting to come apart in one place. He had never so much as complained.

"There's no need. I still have money." Logan said.

"Then where are your boots?" Victor asked. "We never even went near the shoe department."

"These ones can hold up a while longer," Logan said.

"Maybe you should have new boots," Daisy spoke up, hating to agree with Victor but he did have a point. "We don't know when we'll have the chance to get some again."

"See that? Daisy is offering to buy you boots. You gonna offend her by saying no?" Victor said.

"I never…" Daisy began but then stopped. She didn't really care about buying the boots one way or the other. She was happy to do it if he actually needed her to. Logan had done plenty to help as it was so it really wouldn't be a problem to do something in return. She just didn't want to play into Victor's games.

"After everything he's done for you, you don't want to pay him back?" Victor asked Daisy.

"It's fine, I can buy the boots," Daisy said, hoping just to shut him up.

"She doesn't owe me anything," Logan cut in.

"Except maybe her life," Victor argued.

"That's not how it works," Logan said. "If I need to buy something, I'll buy it. Has nothing to do with Daisy."

"Sounds to me like you don't want any help from a woman. Maybe we aren't so different." Victor pointed out. "Go ahead Daisy, get the boots, see if he lets you buy them."

"He's your brother," Daisy said, a little angry. "If you're so worried about his boots, you buy them."

The entire day progressed in much the same manner alternating between squabbles and sullen silences. The afternoon was spent in the hotel room. Victor seemed to be taking a nap but Daisy was pretty sure he wasn't really asleep. Logan got a beer and switched on the TV while Daisy sat down at the table with her laptop. They had already decided that tomorrow they would rent a car and head east.

That night Daisy tried to sleep a foot away from Logan with her back to him. It was difficult to sleep. She knew she needed to try. She might need her energy to run or to fight at anytime so sleep was vital but every time she closed her eyes she couldn't manage to stop her heart from racing. Logan had mentioned once that he could hear people's heartbeats so he probably knew exactly how not relaxed she actually was. Some part of her wished she could hide that from him. He already seemed to feel responsible for her enough as it was. He didn't need to know how anxious she was about sleeping. Eventually she heard the sound of Victor's snores and she let out a breath of relief. Logan reached over and put a hand on her arm. Not long after that, Daisy fell into a restless sleep.

Daisy woke in the morning to find that she had rolled closer to Logan sometime in the night. Actually, he had rolled closer to her as they were on her side of the bed, she was still facing away from him, and he had one arm around her almost possessively. He was still asleep and was holding on to her rather tightly. Daisy tried to pull free and he only held on tighter. Then she heard Victor laughing from somewhere across the room. Logan woke up at the sound and let Daisy go. "Sorry," he said.

Daisy nodded and fled to the bathroom. Victor only laughed harder. While Daisy was in the bathroom she heard a knock at the door of their room. She opened the bathroom door a crack to get a look. Victor had answered the door to find two men in uniform on the other side. His claws were slowly coming out. Daisy pulled the bathroom door shut and locked it as sounds of violence filled the air. She headed for the window. She wasn't running off, she was going to get them a ride.

The jump from the window down to the ground wasn't difficult. Daisy had made similar jumps in the past before, slowing her fall with her powers. The difficult part was staying out of sight of the military vehicles. Daisy stayed crouched down behind the cars in the parking lot and went around to the other side of the hotel. Twenty minutes later she had a rather beaten up truck which the owner sold to her for her $500 and she parked a block away to wait. She knew Logan and Victor would come and find her. It wasn't long until they did, carrying their bags of stuff, and with blood on their clothes. She heard gunshots as they climbed in and caught sight of two military vehicles coming towards them. One bullet hit Victor as he climbed in and he roared in anger. Daisy started driving before the doors even closed.

She wasn't sure how they were ever going to lose their followers in this crappy vehicle but Victor took out a gun from his bag, hung out the window, and started shooting.

"When did you start carrying that?" Logan asked.

"About the same time I got this," Victor took another gun from his bag and passed it to Logan.

Daisy was too occupied driving to really pay attention to what the brothers were shooting at. After a while the shots died down and they put their guns away.

"We clear?" Daisy asked.

"For now," Victor said. "They're gonna send more though now that we've killed some."

Daisy drove for several more hours. Three times Victor told her to take a particular street. She didn't know where he was taking them but she didn't question it. They went a lot of miles before the truck sputtered to a stop in the middle of a small town near some sort of a fish market. It wasn't out of gas.

"Where did you get this piece of junk anyway?" Victor asked as smoke billowed out of the truck's hood. "You couldn't steal anything better than this?"

"I didn't steal it." Daisy said.

"Well you should have. This thing wasn't worth buying." He kicked the truck hard, denting it. "Guess we gotta walk now." Victor got out and led the way towards the market further down the street.

Daisy grabbed her bag from the back of the truck where the guys had stashed it and followed them. "Why is he he buying fish?" She asked Logan as she caught up to them.

"I guess he's hungry."

"I'm not buying fish. I've been here before." Victor said, irritated. "Woman back there by the name of Irina will help us."

"The truck just happened to break down right next to a place you've been before?" Daisy found that a little hard to believe.

"I used to live about fifty miles from here. I know lots of people around here," Victor told them.

"And they...like you?" Daisy asked.

Victor grunted ignoring the question and headed towards the back of the store. An older woman behind a counter saw him coming and greeted him with a smile. They spoke in Russian for a while and then she led them out of the building across the street to what seemed to be a rooming house. All three of them were given a key and a room and Irina left them, sharing one last laugh with Victor before she left.

"She said we can stay as long as we need," Logan told Daisy as Victor disappeared into his room. "She said she's gonna get her sons to get rid of the truck and she even thanked him for his help the last time, whatever that means."

"So...what do we do now? Just stay here?" Daisy asked.

"I guess so," Logan said.

Feeling uneasy about the entire situation, Daisy went into her room and did her best to settle in. It was a small room with a single bed, a desk, shelf, and bathroom. She doubted a place like this would have internet but it turned out she was wrong about that. With internet, Daisy kept herself occupied the only way she could, keeping an eye on the search for them, and with hacking projects. At some point during the day she heard the brothers leave their rooms probably to eat but Daisy didn't bother. It was late into the evening before Daisy realized she actually was hungry. There was a cafe or some sort of restaurant downstairs in the rooming house but she wasn't sure she even wanted to leave her room. She paced back and forth a few times and finally decided to open a can of soup that was left in her bag. She ate it cold rather than face anyone just yet.

After a shower, Daisy tried to go to sleep. She found that it wasn't an easy thing to do. It wasn't because of fear. Not entirely. She was a little cold and uncomfortable though and she realized that maybe she kind of sort of missed Logan. The more she thought about it, the more she had to admit to herself that she did miss him. She missed his warmth. She missed his smell. She missed the protective way he tried to shield her from Victor. But that was stupid. She'd only slept next to him for a few nights and that was out of necessity so...it shouldn't matter now to be back to sleeping alone as usual. Except it did matter and she couldn't seem to figure out why. Eventually Daisy fell asleep.

By the time Daisy woke up in the morning she had it figured out, the reason that she couldn't fall asleep, the reason that she had missed Logan. She had it figured out and she didn't like it. She didn't need these sorts of complications in her life. Not with everything else going on. Logan had already made it clear that he thought she was a kid. Any feelings she might have for him he wasn't going to have in return. It would be best to try not to think about it anyway.

Daisy focused all of her attention on one of her hacking projects that day. She refused to come out of her room at all. That was her way of forcing herself not to think about her feelings, not to face them. Logan knocked on her door twice to try and get her to eat and without opening the door she told him she wasn't hungry. The third time he knocked on her door it was late afternoon and he knocked a little more forcefully than the last two times.

"Daisy? Open the door. You need to eat at least once today," Logan said, frustrated with her.

"I'm fine. I had soup. I need to finish this project," She knew she was being stupid, childish maybe. And she knew she was going to have to face him eventually and do her best to pretend that everything was normal. She couldn't do that just yet. It was easier not to face him until she was a little more ready.

"You need more than soup Daisy," Logan argued. "What is going on with you? Why won't you come out of there?"

He wasn't going to go away. She was pretty sure of that. Daisy got to her feet and wrenched the door open, not really sure why she was angry.

"You've been crying," Logan observed the moment the door was open. Daisy hadn't even been aware of it herself.

"It's...it's nothing. Let's just get some food," Daisy said.

She ended up eating dinner downstairs with both Logan and Victor. She updated them on the sightings of her father which had him most recently rather far away. Mostly though she picked at her food.

Victor talked with some the people who came in and out of the cafe area. They seemed to like him. Apparently he knew how to to be charming and friendly when he wanted to be.

"You gonna tell me what's going on with you?" Logan asked her, while Victor was busy talking with some old acquaintance.

"I'm fine, it's just stress." Daisy said.

Daisy stayed awake far too late that night working on her computer. She didn't want to even try to sleep because that would mean she'd have to acknowledge that she missed him, she'd actually have to face it. It was nearly 2AM when Daisy finally got into bed and tried to sleep. She hoped that she'd simply exhausted herself enough to sleep without having to think or to feel the loneliness but she hadn't. She curled up and bit her lip to try and keep from crying. Her room was between Logan and Victor. Either one of them could hear her if she didn't keep her tears to herself. She couldn't manage to do that though. She burst into tears and within a short time there was a knock on her door.

Daisy got up and opened the door. It was Victor.

"I don't like it when people wake me up from a good sleep. I'm not gonna listen to that all night." Victor grabbed her arm and pulled her to Logan's door, knocking hard. Logan opened his door and Victor shoved her part of the way into the room. "Shut her up or I will." Victor slammed the door shut as he left.

Logan moved as if to go after him and then stopped, seeing Daisy standing there with tears on her face, arms crossed across herself protectively, "Did he hurt you?"

"No…" Daisy shook her head.

Logan stood there a moment as if he were unsure what to do next then he lay down on the far side of the small bed. "Are you coming?"

Daisy didn't hesitate. She climbed into the bed and sighed with relief as his arms came around her and he pulled her close to him, closer than he ever really had. "I missed you…" Daisy whispered.

"Yeah...me too." He said, hugging her a little tighter.

Daisy didn't know what he meant by that. She knew he cared about her in some way or other but she couldn't really define it. At the moment she didn't care to. She was happy just be near him again for a little while.


	13. Chapter 13

Daisy woke up that morning still cuddled up close to Logan. He was still asleep and had left one hand resting on her backside. It actually felt really nice. No one had touched her like this since Lincoln...Daisy pulled away with a gasp. How could she have forgotten Lincoln? The guilt was a little overwhelming. Logan was awake and he let her go without asking for an explanation.

Logan and Victor left to do some work that day. Apparently Irina had something she needed them to do. She didn't explain what that might be but Victor was game to go do it. Daisy was left to occupy herself.

When the brothers came back that evening it was clear that they hadn't spent the day cutting trees. They entered the cafe area where Daisy had set up her laptop and the both of them had blood on their clothes.

"It's not what you think." Logan said as he joined her at her table. "There was a rabid bear. It's been a problem for these people for a while. Apparently this isn't the first time Victor has helped them out with a problem like this."

"Why though?" Daisy asked confused. She glanced over at Victor who was busy talking to Irina's daughter who also happened the be rather pretty and blonde. "Does he actually care about their safety?"

"I think he just likes the hunt."

"Speaking of the hunt, my father seems to be headed this way. He is a long way off but he is going in the right direction."

"That beast he stole must be able to track. At least it isn't very fast." Logan said.

"What are we gonna do when he does catch up to us? I mean if he can't be reasoned with?"

"I don't know," Logan seemed uncomfortable with the question.

Victor joined them at their table about then. He seemed to be in good spirits. "Irina had some extra vodka in the back." he plunked the bottle down on the table rather harshly. "A third for me, a third for Jimmy, and a third for you." he told Daisy.

"No thanks I…" Daisy didn't want to be drinking and risk not being clear headed.

"Suit yourself," Victor said, "That just leaves more for us."

Daisy got up from the table and went back to her room. She was rather tired from staying up so late the previous night so she put away her computer and curled up on her bed to try and sleep. She was exhausted enough that sleep hit her rather quickly. She woke up some hours later to the sound of the brothers footsteps tromping back to their rooms not so quietly. Victor went into his room and shut the door rather harshly. Logan went into his room and then back out again. He was outside her door for some reason. Daisy knew why. She got up and went to the door. He was standing there looking rather sad.

"You can come in," she told him and shut the door behind him when he entered. As he went past her she noticed that he smelled rather strongly of vodka and beer. "How much did you drink?"

"Not enough," was his answer.

"I suppose alcohol doesn't affect you like most people," she realized out loud.

"It doesn't. If it had worked, I wouldn't be here."

"Logan…" what was he trying to say?

"Don't say anything Daisy. It's better not to. It's better if I'm not here too." he took a step back towards the door.

She caught his arm before he could go. "If I didn't want you here, I wouldn't have opened the door."

"You shouldn't have opened the door. I shouldn't have come in either. I should have sent you straight back here last night."

"I don't see why…"

"Because you're only gonna get hurt, that's why!" he said rather harshly.

"I don't care," Daisy said. If he thought he was pushing her away to protect her then he was wrong. She wasn't willing to lose him entirely and it was starting to look like that's where things were heading. He'd gotten too close and was now pulling away. "Sometimes it's worth getting hurt."

"Daisy…" Logan began, still trying to pull away from her but more hesitant to leave.

"Is it because of this morning?" she dared to ask him.

"Yeah, this morning and the past three damn mornings."

"I didn't have a problem with it…"

Logan looked a little stunned. "Then why did you run off like that?"

Daisy looked at her feet a moment before answering him. "I loved someone. He died. I realized this morning that I'd forgotten to miss him…" she said, tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," He sighed, "But this is still a mistake. I need another beer."

"If you're leaving then we have to trade rooms," Daisy said before he could go. Victor probably would know it if she started crying either way but a little distance might help.

"Why?" Then he seemed to understand what she was getting at without needing an explanation. "Yeah, go ahead."

Daisy went out prepared to try to sleep in Logan's bed in spite of the fact that the pillow probably still smelled like him. She had only put her hand on the doorknob when Victor's door was wrenched open and he stepped out into the hallway.

"You two are pathetic." Victor said. "Especially you Jimmy. You got a woman inviting you to her bed and you'd rather have a beer? What the fuck is wrong with you? Go in there and keep the lady company. I know you don't want her to be lonely."

Logan tensed up with his hands at his sides and Daisy could see that he was trying decide if this was worth a fight. It almost hurt worse that he was so determined to keep his distance from her than it did that Victor would force him to stay. Not wanting either of them to see how upset she was, Daisy went into the room and climbed into the bed without waiting for them to finish their disagreement. Moments later Logan entered the room and shut the door behind him.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't," Daisy said. "Just don't."

His presence next to her that night was as disturbing as it was comforting.

Sometime late in the night she heard it and woke with a start. It was the rumbling growling sound of the creature they had started off their mission hunting. Logan was awake too and putting on his boots. They heard Victor in the hallway cursing about being woken up.

"Jimmy!" He shouted, wrenching open their locked door with hardly any effort. "Smell that? That's that beast that was with Zabo?"

"Yeah," Logan agreed. "That's the one."

"Let's go then. Let's end this." Victor headed down the hall, down the stairs and out the door followed by Logan and Daisy.

In the distance at the end of the street they could see something large and ominous. It was white, and furry, and did indeed have glowing eyes. It wasn't doing anything destructive though, just growling and walking, walking straight towards them. As her eyes adjusted to the moonlight on the snow, Daisy could see that the creature wasn't alone, someone was following it. Her father was following it and wearing some sort of device with wires on his head. He stopped walking and the creature stopped too.

"Dad?" Daisy called out. "What are you doing?" She moved to go towards him and Logan put up a hand to stop her.

"Stay back Daisy." Logan said.

"Let me try talking to him," she insisted.

"Daisy?" Calvin called out, both he and the creature both moving closer.

"Stop right there!" Logan told Calvin. "You and your pet don't come any closer."

"Mishka isn't a pet!" Calvin said, offended. "He's a sentient being and is very misunderstood. He wouldn't hurt a fly."

"He already did hurt a bunch of people," Daisy argued.

"Yes, but that was before, before I helped him. He didn't know he was hurting people. He doesn't do that anymore," Calvin said.

"What about you? Do you still hurt people?" Daisy asked.

"If I hurt anyone, it was only because I had to in order to get my daughter back!" Cal said, angry. "Come with me Daisy? You can't go back to SHIELD now. I heard there are troops looking for you and if you're here that has to mean that SHIELD isn't going to get you out. They're not going to save you. They've abandoned you. I never will."

"Go with you where Dad? What do you really expect we're gonna do? Buy a house in Moscow and bake cookies with Mishka?"

"He doesn't like cookies," Cal said. "Daisy, I know you aren't a child anymore. That doesn't mean it's too late."

"Maybe," Daisy said almost against her will. "Maybe there's a chance if you could help me."

"Anything. I'll help you with anything." Cal said.

"She is just using you," Victor spoke up for the first time in all of this. "You help her and she'll erase your memory again just like she did the last time."

"That's not true," Calvin said, "Daisy wouldn't…" He stopped seeing the horrified look on her face.

"It is true," Victor said, "Simmons told me all about how Daisy asked that her father's memory be erased. She doesn't want to live with you Cal. She doesn't even want you to remember her."

"It's not like that," Daisy protested.

"You had my memory erased?" Cal asked her, horrified at the prospect.

"I'm sorry," Daisy said.

Cal didn't move. He just stood there a moment looking distraught and then enraged. Mishka responded to that by getting down on all fours and charging straight at them.

Mishka was not a friendly looking creature. He had a face that looked like some combination of a primate and a polar bear which meant that there were definitely sharp teeth. He had clawlike front paws or hands which he had crouched down to run on and was running at a rapid speed. Daisy raised a hand to quake him but there was no need. Victor took a flying leap at Mishka and attacked viciously. Blood and fur were flying everywhere. Logan wasn't far behind and when he jumped into the fray, claws extended, Daisy heard the sound of metal hitting metal. Mishka was definitely partially mechanical. Mishka's massive teeth tore into Victor's arm and threw him some fifteen feet away. Mishka swatted Logan away with a clawed hand and as soon as Logan was clear Daisy raised her hand and quaked the creature. She needed a large quake to do any damage because at first Mishka only stumbled back a bit. Daisy hit him harder and knocked him off his feet and flat onto his back, holding him there until Logan and Victor were up again.

The second time brother's charged they seemed to have coordinated their attack with Victor hitting in one area and Logan in another. Mishka was roaring and when Logan stabbed his claws through his belly, there was a green substance that leaked out. Daisy glanced at her father and saw that he flinched with each blow to Mishka. The beast threw off Logan and Victor a second time and Daisy raised her arm and quaked him, this time knocking him down with more force than before. She had more power and could have hit him harder but she didn't want to start an earthquake in the town if she could help it. She held Mishka in place while Victor and Logan charged him again. When they hit, she saw her father stumbled back. She realized that maybe the connection between her father and Mishka went both ways.

Daisy raised an arm at her father. "Make him stop Dad or I will."

Calvin didn't respond well to that. He moved towards her intently. Logan caught sight of Calvin headed towards Daisy and tried to leave the fight with Mishka to go after him. Mishka grabbed him by the shoulder with his teeth, picked him up and shook him violently. Victor roared in anger and hit Mishka with several more blows that barely seemed to faze the creature. Mishka was doing his best to tear Logan apart.

Calvin was only ten feet from Daisy. "Make him stop!" She told him, worry in her voice. She was concerned that a quake to her father might break the connection and then no one would have any control at all over Mishka.

"I wouldn't hurt you Daisy. I would never hurt you like you've hurt me. Never. Let's just start over, start over and…"

Daisy didn't hear the rest of what he said. Victor had knocked her to the ground. Once she was down he immediately dragged her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her neck from behind her back.

"End this Zabo or your daughter dies!" Victor said. In the distance Mishka was still ripping off Logan's flesh but unable to break his skeleton.

Calvin only hesitated a moment. He reached up and hit a button on the device on his head and Mishka fell to the ground, dropping Logan as he did.

"Is it dead?" Victor asked.

Calvin nodded.

"It's done. Let me go Victor," Daisy said, he had somehow pinned her arms behind her back when he grabbed her.

"I don't think so, now that I have you might as well have a little fun," he said.

Daisy tried to pull away, disgusted by his words. Calvin realized very quickly what was happening and became visibly angry.

Logan got to his feet and was coming towards them, his injuries healing as he walked. "Let her go Victor!"

"Sure thing Jimmy. I'll let her go, right after you kill her father," Victor said.

"Are you fucking serious?" Logan said as he reached them. "We won, he'll do whatever you tell him now!" It was clear that Calvin was subdued just because Daisy was a hostage.

"And so will you," Victor pointed out. "You really want to see what I'm gonna do to her if you don't kill him?"

Victor leaned a little closer to Daisy and sniffed her neck as if her were about to kiss her. Logan was shaking with rage. "I'm not gonna let you do that," Logan said.

"Then you're gonna have to kill him," Victor said.

"Kill me," Calvin spoke up.

"What?" Logan said.

"I don't deserve to live anyway. Not after the things I've done. Kill me and keep my daughter safe," Calvin said.

"Don't watch Daisy," Logan said.

She closed her eyes and didn't open them again even after she heard the sound of metal cutting through flesh. The next sound she heard was helicopters.

"That's the Russians. We gotta go," Victor said, dragging her with him.

She opened her eyes as they moved away from street and met Irina coming out of the boarding house with keys in her hand. She spoke to Victor in Russian and after that the three of them headed to a car which seemed to be already packed with their stuff. Victor drove them out of town.


	14. Chapter 14

"You think those helicopters were for us or for Mishka?" Logan asked no one in particular as they drove away.

Daisy sat listlessly curled up in the back seat of the car, unable to care that they were probably being chased. She was in a state of shock.

"Don't know. Doesn't matter though," Victor said. "Where they come from they can send a lot more troops. They may not be able to kill us but enough of them could capture us. I'm not being captured. Not today."

A span of silence passed before Logan spoke up again. "You told me you wouldn't hurt Daisy until all this was over."

"Looked like it was about to be over," Victor shrugged. "Or maybe I was bluffing. Besides, you didn't even take off Zabo's head. You think I don't know that he heals? I wasn't the only one bluffing."

"I got him through the heart. It stopped. He might not heal from that," Logan said sadly.

"Well don't cry about it Jimmy. At least your girl is safe from him now."

They rode for hours in that car and didn't seem to have anyone following them. Eventually Victor stopped for gas and got out of the car to fill up the tank himself.

"You doing okay?" Logan asked Daisy.

She nodded. "I'm okay," she didn't really feel okay but it was easier just to lie. "Where is he taking us?"

"I don't know. Probably to more people he knows around here," Logan said.

"Great. I don't see how a guy like him has so many friends."

"If those troops were looking for us and not Mishka, we might need those friends of his," Logan pointed out.

"And if they weren't? If they've stopped looking for us?" Daisy asked him.

"Then you take one of Victor's guns and get the hell outta here." Logan told her.

"Can't I at least shoot him a few times first?" Daisy said bitterly.

"Be my guest."

Victor soon climbed back into the car resumed their journey. He didn't stop until late morning when they pulled up to a rustic looking cabin at the end of a gravel road in the middle of a forest.

"Home sweet home," Victor said, getting out of the car and grabbing his bag from the back seat next to Daisy.

"You used to live here?" Logan asked, as they followed Victor inside. Victor had a key and unlocked the front door.

It was dusty inside and didn't look like anyone had been in the place in years. Victor went to the fireplace and started a fire. The light from the fire revealed that the room had no modern furnishings. He opened the curtains and let in more light. There were electrical outlets in the walls but no appliances in sight. There were candles, rustic furniture, a fur rug on the floor, and some cooking pots on a shelf.

"No one is gonna look for us here," Victor said. "We can stay until things start to blow over."

"What are we gonna eat?" Logan asked.

"Whatever we find. You coming with me to hunt?"

"I'd best not. Not until we're sure we weren't followed." Logan said.

"Fine, but if you two aren't here when I come back I know how to find you."

As soon as Victor was gone Daisy spoke the question that was on her mind. "Do you think he survived? My father?"

"I don't know," Logan said. "I was trying harder to make Victor believe I killed him than I was trying to actually kill him. Maybe…"

Daisy crossed the room and hugged Logan. She didn't care about what he'd said to her the previous night. She didn't care that he was trying to keep her distant. She just knew that she couldn't hold it together much longer without a hug. He seemed as relieved to be hugging her as she was. He had his arms around her so tight that it almost hurt. And then he kissed her.

The door to the cabin was flung open. "We got company," Victor said.

Daisy and Logan broke apart their brief kiss. "The army?" Logan asked.

"Nope. An old friend of mine, guy by the name of Dimitri. He lives in a cabin down the road a bit. He's on his way here. I can hear him and smell him," Victor said. "Man likes to talk. He probably won't shut up for a good hour if I let him but if I don't let him in he'll think we aren't friends anymore. It's not worth having a shape shifter as an enemy. He's more useful as a friend. So we're letting him in and you're gonna be nice."

"Yeah, we got it." Logan said, and Daisy nodded her agreement.

"And if he happens to be a woman this time, just play along," Victor added.

Victor was right, Dimitri did like to talk. He arrived looking like a young tough guy and didn't stop talking for nearly two hours. He gave them canned food though and they shared a dinner cooked over the fireplace. By the time the neighbor was gone, Daisy was exhausted from the stress of the day.

"Daisy can take the bedroom tonight," Victor said, "I want to talk to you Jimmy, outside."

Logan sighed, glanced back at Daisy with a nod, and followed Victor out the door.

Daisy kept her ear to the door just to try and hear what was going on outside. If this was going to be a fight between the two brothers she knew Logan expected her to leave. She honestly hadn't decided yet whether she was going to do that or not. On the one hand, she definitely couldn't just run off while Victor tried to kill Logan. Not when she could help. On the other hand, if Victor succeeded she definitely couldn't stay. She couldn't beat him alone. With help maybe but not alone.

Daisy heard footsteps crunching through the snow as Victor and Logan walked probably only as far as the car parked outside.

"What do you want. Victor?" Logan said as the footsteps stopped.

"For you to help me decide something. After she goes to sleep, are you going to hold her down and fuck her or am I?"

"You're not going to fucking touch her!" Logan said,

"That's what I thought you'd say," Victor said. "Thing is, I don't think you'd even have to hold her down. I think she'd just invite you right in. Where's the fun in that? It's not even a challenge that way. We haven't got all that much time left before this all ends one way or the other. Intelligence or the military can't be all that far behind. Might as well take advantage of the time we have."

Daisy heard the snickt of Logan's claws popping out.

"Jimmy, put the claws away," Victor said, sounding amused. "I'm having more fun getting you riled up than I ever would with what I could do to her."

"So you were never going to…?" Logan asked, angry.

"I was going to. I changed my mind. That doesn't mean I won't change it back."

"Are you trying to say that you do have a heart after all?" Logan retorted.

"Not a heart, just a sense of humor."

Logan sighed. "Then why did you bring me out here Victor? To try and kill me?"

"Not yet. We'll get to that later. I just wanted to remind you that might want to say goodbye to Daisy before you die. Also, you're sharing the bedroom with her tonight." Victor said.

"I'm not…"

"Shut up. Guests in my house get the bedroom. I do have manners after all."

Daisy heard their footsteps moving back towards the door and she hurried into the bedroom. She pulled back the covers, climbed into bed, and curled up on one side of the mattress. Moments later Logan entered the room/ Daisy did her best to pretend to be asleep. He probably knew she wasn't asleep. She kept up the ruse all the same. Logan lay down next to her on the bed which wasn't really very large. Daisy could feel his warmth next to her and wanted nothing more than to move closer to him and kiss him again but she refused to allow herself to move.

Her determination mattered very little. Daisy awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of a wolf howling somewhere in the woods and she found that she was wrapped up in his arms. He was awake too.

"Victor told me I should say goodbye to you tonight," Logan said quietly.

"Is that what you're planning to do?"

Logan was silent a moment. He reached for something on the bedside stand. "I got the car keys when Victor wasn't paying attention. You might need them when the time comes."

"You really think I'm gonna just run off? Maybe I could help. I was able knock Victor over before and that wasn't even one of my best quakes."

"I know, but how long can you make it last?"

"I have no idea. I could last long enough to help."

"Daisy, this isn't your fight…" Logan protested. "You shouldn't be here when it happens."

"You can't make me leave," she said.

Logan leaned a little closer to Daisy and he kissed her again, longingly. As he pulled away he pressed the car keys into her hand. "You should go now before we both do something we regret later."

Daisy was pretty sure she wouldn't regret it. She wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't clear who kissed who at the point. His hands were in her hair and leaving was the last thing on Daisy's mind. A noise in the next room of a cell phone notification was only a minor distraction. Then the door to the bedroom was flung open and was standing there with a phone in his hand.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said seeming not sorry at all. "I happened to pick up Daisy's phone at the beginning of her trail. Looks like she just got a text from...Phil Coulson. I can't open it without a password. That your boyfriend Daisy?"

Daisy got out of bed and went to the doorway. "Give me that!" Victor gave up the phone without an argument. "Coulson says that he was able to convince the Russians my father killed Mishka and it had nothing to do with SHIELD. We have an extraction, tomorrow."

Victor nodded. "Good, then it ends tonight."

Without hesitation and without really even thinking about it, Daisy turned and raised an arm towards Victor, ready to quale him. Logan had his claws out in the same instant. Victor ignored Logan and glared at Daisy. "If you want to live, you'll stay out of this because if you even try to use your powers on me, when I get to you, I'll make sure you die slowly."

"Daisy…?" Logan spoke up. "Just go to the extraction point. You don't need to be involved in this. I'll meet you there later."

Victor stepped out of the doorway to let her pass. Daisy didn't want to go. It was against her better judgement to leave. She glanced back at Logan who nodded, trying to convince her to go.

"Get out Daisy," Victor said, "Get out before I change my mind."

Victor never stopped her from going past him and out the front door. She climbed into the car and put the keys in the ignition. She could already hear the sounds of the fight inside the cabin. The front door was torn off the hinges as the brothers came tumbling outside. Logan's claws were in Victor's belly and Victor was tearing at Logan's chest. Logan saw that she was still there and yelled at her to go. She did. She could hardly see to drive for all the tears in her eyes but she somehow kept driving anyway. It was two hours to the extraction point. Once there she would need to wait another four hours for her ride. The waiting was agony. She was sure she'd made the wrong choice in leaving. She was sure of it one moment and then unsure of it the next. And she was worried that Logan might not survive.

Eventually, her ride to the airport with passports and IDs did arrive. Logan did not arrive. She made her ride wait for as long as they possibly could and then she got in the car and rode to the airport.

Three weeks back at SHIELD wasn't enough to make Daisy feel like herself again. She'd visited Mack a few times. She'd gotten an apology from Jemma for getting Victor involved without knowing more about him. Daisy had been through a debriefing, done some paperwork and computer projects. None of those things helped with the one thing on her mind. What had happened to Logan?

Coulson poked his head in the computer lab where Daisy was working. "There's something you need to see." he said and then he left.

Curious, Daisy got up to follow him. She went out of the computer lab and followed Coulson into a room two doors down. There he was, leather jacket, crazy hair, worn out boots and all.

"Logan!" Daisy ran to hug him without a second thought.

"It's good to see you too," He said, holding her tightly.

"If you survived then did Victor…?" Daisy asked as he let her go.

"Victor is out there somewhere. Either he thought I was dead or he got bored of fighting. I don't know which."

"It doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're okay." Daisy said.

"And since you are okay," Coulson cut in, "And Mack is still not quite okay, would you consider doing another mission for SHIELD?"

"The only thing I'm gonna consider right now is a few beers," Logan said, heading for the door.

"You still need to be debriefed!" Phil called after him.

"Yeah, I'll do that later. Maybe in the morning. See you later kid." Logan called back as he left them.

"I hate it when he calls me kid…" Daisy said.

"Actually, I think that one was for me," Phil said, with a smile.

"Think he'll be back in the morning?" she asked, not sure that Logan was really committed to SHIELD as much as she was.

Phil shrugged. "I don't know. He left something in your pocket though."

Daisy looked down at her front shirt pocket and saw a slip of paper sticking out. She unfolded and found a phone number written on it. No, he wasn't coming back but he was keeping his promise that she would be able to reach him all the same. Daisy smiled to herself and slipped the paper back into her shirt pocket.


End file.
